Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Social Democrats for putting forward the motion. I welcome the news that Ibrahim Alagha and his family, it is hoped, will come home today and I echo the calls for everyone, all the hostages, to be released. It is critical we use whatever means we have and whatever leverage we can use to put pressure on the Israeli apartheid regime to commence an immediate ceasefire. What happened on 7 October was wrong. It was horrific, and those who carried out any attacks on innocent civilians should be held accountable.

It did not start there, however. The collective amnesia of the US, Britain, Germany, France and the unelected elites in the EU, such as Ursula von der Leyen, about the decades of death and destruction of the Palestinian people is sickening. Since 7 October, 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 5,000 children and 3,100 women. Some 2,000 are trapped under the rubble and more than 40,000 have been injured. A total of 26,000 tonnes of explosives - two Hiroshimas - have been laid down on Gaza. As the US sent bombs to the Israeli war criminals, the US Secretary of State said today that "we can never let the crimes Russia is committing become our new normal". He continued, "Bombing schools and hospitals and apartment buildings ... is not normal." You could not make it up. I do not know how they make these statements with a straight face.

I ask Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party to remind themselves of their actions and words around the illegal and horrific invasion of Ukraine and put themselves back then, when they were moved to action. Deputy McAuliffe said:

...we expelled Russian diplomats following the poisoning incident in the UK. The events of this week, when the Russian ambassador used our airwaves to spread lies and disinformation, and Russia invaded a sovereign nation and is targeting civilians in what could amount to war crimes...

The Minister, Deputy McEntee, said the following. Let us change "Ukraine" for "Palestine".

The images from Ukraine are truly horrifying - images of families fleeing their homes for their safety, images of bombs ripping through cities and towns, images of doctors fighting in vain to save the life of a six-year-old girl still wearing her pyjamas. Those doctors were right to demand that the images of that dying girl be shown to Vladimir Putin. Nothing so encapsulated the horror of war.

Deputy Flanagan said of Vladimir Putin, "The failure of the Russian political and military elites to restrain him and the failure of the international community to realise the danger he posed emboldened him further." I could go on and on. Deputy Neale Richmond said, "The Russian ambassador simply cannot be welcome in this State while Russia continues its illegal and bloody invasion of Ukraine."

We should use those words, and I ask every single one of those Members to use their courage and their strength today to support the motions this evening to expel the Israeli ambassador and, further, to support the call for Israel to be brought before the International Criminal Court. They have rightly stood up for the Ukrainian people. We have a Ukrainian flag flying outside the Dáil. Let us put up the Palestinian flag and show support for the Palestinian people now.

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