Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

What Israel is doing is disgusting. It is wrong. Men, women and children are suffering and dying needlessly. I am looking at this from the point of view of a Deputy, father, brother and nephew. What is happening here disgusts me. People are calling for the Israeli ambassador to be expelled. The first thing I would have said would be to do this, then, after thinking about it, I would say that if one wants peace and if we have to negotiate with somebody for the release of people and for peace talks, closing the door puts Ireland out of any talks to try to bring peace.

Eleven thousand Palestinians, two thirds of them women and children, have been killed. Israel should absolutely be held to account for this and brought down for this, but when I look at the citizens who are still out there and how I can help to try to get them out of Gaza and to protect them, expelling the one person who we can have a link to puts us out of the talks completely. The Israeli ambassador should, first of all, be told to get in here to answer questions about why Israel is not involved in negotiations for peace and for people to be released straight away, and why it is stopping humanitarian aid from going into Gaza. That is what should be done and is the first port of call. If the ambassador refuses to come in here, to committees and into the Department, then we say to her that if she is not going to talk to us anyway, she can get out. The first port of call for me would be for the protection of the people I can try to save. Even if it is about trying to save one person, I would keep the communication open and try to go through that process to try to save one life.

Expelling the ambassador without going through this protocol puts other people at risk who we might be able to save. As I say, if the Israeli ambassador does not come in front of the House and give a short timeline, if she does not come in front of committees and if she does not come in front of the Department to answer questions, then we would say that we do not want her here because she is no good to us. That is the first port of call that we should use to try to save a life and to keep communication open, even for a short time, to see if we can save one life. People have spoken about what we can do to bring peace. That is the first thing we should do in this House, not talking about the Taoiseach or Tánaiste. What we should be doing is getting the ambassador in here. If she does not do that, we should then say that she is no good to us if she is not going to talk to the representatives of Ireland who are disgusted with what is happening in Gaza, and she should not be here. That is the first port of call that I would go to. If she does not come here and is not willing to talk to us, she is no good for us.

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