Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is clear from the Taoiseach's response earlier during Leaders' Questions that he is not even aware of the Government's legal obligations under the genocide convention to act to prevent genocide, incitement to genocide or complicity with genocide. I strongly urge him to check on the Government's obligations under the convention because they are onerous, and with very good reason. The convention was established in 1948 after the Holocaust to ensure genocides never happen again. I can assure the Taoiseach that all the experts, including many Jewish experts on the Holocaust, are saying what Israel is doing in Gaza fits the definition of genocide and that the world is failing in its obligation to prevent it.

I will also ask about hostages in Gaza. There are 2.3 million hostages and there have been for 16 years, whose entry into and exit from Gaza is controlled by Israel. That is a war crime by the way. On Irish hostages specifically, although some have left and some of their families have arrived home, Israel is not putting some of them on the list. Two of them are Zak Hania, who people will have seen on television in recent weeks describing the horror of how his family has been driven out of northern Gaza and then bombed in southern Gaza, and Muhammad Hania. There are others, as far as I know. Israel is holding them hostage. My question to the Taoiseach relates to them. What is the Government doing to get the Irish hostages still being held by Israel released? Israel has absolutely no right to hold on to people, to control their exit or entry. They are Irish citizens. It has no right to control the exit and entry of anyone in Gaza under international law, but it certainly has no right to prevent Irish citizens leaving the horror that is Gaza.

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