Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I expect it to be a running theme in this debate, but I cannot step away from the fact that yesterday, a person occupying the seat that is reserved for the Head of the Irish Government gave his view – I believe his honest view – and one in accordance with the World Heath Organization, that Israel as a state is “blinded by rage” and is “waging a war on children”. He further went on to say, “You cannot build peace on the ... graves of children”.

If it were possible to place a number on those graves, it would exceed 4,609 children who have been killed in Gaza by the state of Israel in the five weeks that have passed since the horrors of 7 October. That is 4,609 children as of Friday. I dare question the audacity of anyone who questions whether we will table these motions when those numbers are so high.

As the Minister spoke those words, one could not help but think they were significant. However, as he continued, one could not help but be dismayed that he, as a representative of the Irish State, was going to once more content themselves with offering nothing more than words – platitudes – without any prospect of consequence for the state guilty of this slaughter of children. If we can acknowledge the killing of children and then do nothing to prevent it, it is in that moment we have lost our humanity.

Israel has not just engaged in the murder of children. There is no longer any prospect of counting the full total of the dead. The figures stopped on Friday as too many hospitals tended to the wounded and collecting the dead has been destroyed; too many bodies lay on the rubble. Some 30,000 people have been injured. More than 100 UN workers have been targeted and killed by the State of Israel.

Approximately 50 journalists have been targeted for death precisely to prevent the full destruction from coming to light. When I talk about the deaths of journalists I cannot help but go back to over a year and a half ago and think of the incredible assassination of the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, simply for doing her job. Some 214 schools have been targeted, 64 mosques destroyed, three churches bombed, 719 industrial facilities destroyed and 24 of 35 hospitals in Gaza have been rendered obsolete in five weeks in an area half the size of Louth, and we offer words and nothing else. The horrors at Al-Shifa Hospital are seared into our collective consciousness. This morning, the Israeli military stormed past the dead who were already piled up outside and are, as we speak, laying siege inside this hospital. Is there any other nation that would get away with that level of barbarism and have impunity on the international stage as they do so?

The international community has enabled this. Despite the horrors being witnessed in real time, they cannot even bring themselves to call for a ceasefire. They use terms like "humanitarian pause." What sort of savagery of the English language is that? What sort of terminology? Four hours in which the bombs stop dropping. People will not have had time to recollect themselves by the time the bombs drop again. It is incredibly inhumane. The US, the EU and the UK have enabled this. We know what the logic is, we just do not speak it. As colonial powers, they have participated in atrocities of their own. They wish Israel to step back a little but not too much.

We are bringing forward these proposals, and we do so unashamedly, because we stand for consequence. We do so because we want to bring the savagery to an end. We will make no apology to anybody for the measures that are contained within our motion. We make a call for referral to the ICC and for the Irish State to place its name and weight behind that referral. The Minister of State yesterday laughably said that this would politicise the ICC, which is tasked with investigating genocide. That is ridiculous. To show how ridiculous it is, people should know that the Rome Statute was designed to punish breaches of international law and there is implied obligation on states to call out such breaches. We make other recommendations in the motion, specifically in respect of the EU-Israel trade agreement, and call for enactment of the human rights clauses contained within it. If we do not call what is happening in Gaza, being inflicted by the State of Israel, an affront to human dignity and an encroachment on human rights, what is it? We may as well rip up these agreements. They have no meaning if we do not enact them now.

We are also calling for the occupied territories Bill and settlements divestment Bill to be enacted by the Irish State. I remember when Fianna Fáil introduced Second Stage of the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018, the Minister of State's colleague, the then Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, said:

To those who have tried to dissuade us from supporting the Bill and say that it is not the time for such a Bill, I say if this is not the time to act, when will that time come?

He said that in 2019. Still, the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, stands back and says he will do nothing now.

I unashamedly call for a cessation of diplomatic ties with the State of Israel in Ireland as it currently exists. As is testified by the United Nations, I believe there is an impending genocide taking place in Gaza as we speak. It is unconscionable to me that we would maintain diplomatic ties on those terms. I fully appreciate the necessity of diplomatic relations in normal peace times. I appreciate the efforts that are being made to bring Irish citizens home who have been trapped in Gaza. Is that the extent of the Irish diplomatic doctrine? Will we advocate to take 40 of our own citizens out, as we should do, and then avert our gaze from the horrors that are being inflicted on the people therein? Is that the extent of what we as Irish people would do? If that is the case, the Government does not do so in my name or in the name of the thousands of people who have contacted our office demanding action, not words, by the Irish State.

See this speech in context