Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Last night, the South African Parliament passed a motion by a large majority to cut all diplomatic ties with Israel and to expel the Israeli ambassador from South Africa. The Dáil should have done that last week. We have another chance to do it this evening and we should take that chance. Instead of doing that last week, what did the Government do? It mobilised and whipped its TDs to vote it down but not just that. What did the Tánaiste, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and leader of Fianna Fáil do? After hosting the Israeli ambassador at the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis, the Tánaiste went on a trip to Israel supposedly representing the people of this country. He participated in a propaganda tour organised by the Israeli state and designed to justify the genocide being inflicted on the people of Gaza. Did the Tánaiste, when he was in the region, visit Gaza where more than 13,000 people have been killed, almost 6,000 children have been killed and more than one in 200 residents have been killed? No, he did not.

I will be interested in hearing the Tánaiste explain why he did not visit Gaza. It is for one of two reasons. One is that he did not attempt to visit, that he thought it was appropriate to visit Israel to see the impact of Hamas rockets and to point at a ceiling, but not appropriate to go and witness the destruction of hospitals, apartment blocks and refugee camps in Gaza. The other reason is that he did attempt to visit and Israel said "No" but he had nothing to say publicly about that. I will be very interested in finding out which of those reasons it is.

The Tánaiste's trip to Israel was a disgrace. It was absolutely shameful to participate in such a propaganda tour while the assault on Gaza is ongoing. Look at the Tweets that were put out by him, and compare and contrast. Meeting with the Palestinian Authority, he tweeted "I expressed my sympathy to the Palestinian people over civilian deaths in Gaza." There was no mention of who caused those civilian deaths or who is responsible for them whereas, when meeting with people in Israel, he tweeted "I unreservedly condemn the brutal attack by Hamas" and had no difficulty in identifying who was responsible.

Maybe that was just a slip in a couple of tweets that were sent out, but it is not because there is an amendment, a countermotion in the Tánaiste's own name, which is very clear in condemning the barbaric attack by Hamas but when it comes to all the victims in Gaza, what does it have to say? It "deeply deplores the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, including the death of over 11,000 people," etc., etc., "following Israel's military actions in Gaza". It is very passive language. Later on, it "also condemns the killing of children and civilians". Full stop. There is no mention of who is responsible. How is it that Palestinians just seem to get killed with nobody being responsible, nobody being blamed and nobody being condemned? The Government's response to all this and to our motion will be to say diplomacy is key. We cannot possibly impose sanctions and seek to isolate apartheid Israel. But that is not the truth. It is not the real reason and the Tánaiste knows that because he can compare the response to Israel's assault on Gaza with the response by the Irish Government to Russia's criminal imperialist invasion of Ukraine. Was the Russian ambassador, Filatov, at the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis? Was he invited? Did the Tánaiste go on a propaganda tour to Russia? No. The Irish State expelled Russian diplomats and imposed extensive sanctions on Russia. So what is the difference? Is it the number of casualties? No, it is clearly not. The difference is clear. It is pretty obvious that it is the attitude of the United States. The US supports Israel. It gives billions of dollars, $3 billion or $4 billion a year, in military aid. It has greenlit the current genocide and it has increased the amount they're giving an extra $14.5 billion. Israel is a crucial ally of the US in the Middle East. Joe Biden famously said that if Israel did not exist, it would have to be invented. So the US supports Israel, whereas it opposes Russia, seeing Russia as a rival imperialism and seeing the criminal invasion by Putin of Ukraine as an opportunity to extend its own sphere of influence. The Tánaiste and his party, as well as Fine Gael and the entire political establishment see Ireland in the US camp. They want us to be more and more in that camp. They would like for us eventually to be in NATO but they know they have to move slowly. So in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, not only has the Government imposed sanctions, it has even participated in military training exercises for Ukrainian troops. In response to Israel's genocide in Gaza, what has it done? Words, words and more words; words attempting to respond to the attitudes of the vast majority of people in this country; words responding to those who are on the streets; words to try to make sure you do not pay a political price for the position that you are taking. But in terms of actions, the Government is doing absolutely nothing. Look at its countermotion. There is not a single action and why? It is because it does not want to offend the US Administration. Moreover, Shannon Airport is at the heart of this relationship, both symbolically and materially. Is Shannon Airport being used to transport weapons from the US to Israel? The truth is, I do not know. The truth is that the Tánaiste and the Government do not know either because they refuse to do inspections. We do know it is very likely that troops have been going through Shannon Airport to the region to assist in the US agenda of backing up Israel's genocide on Gaza. We know there has been a significant 50% increase in munitions allowances, indicating an increase in troops going, and we know that the US is the biggest supporter of the genocide being inflicted on the people of Gaza. It is absolutely wrong. It is scandalous that they continue to be allowed to use Shannon Airport. Shannon Airport must be shut down for the US military.

As for the final point I want to make, the Tánaiste yesterday stated the reason the Government cannot support the motion is because we do not include a condemnation of Hamas. That is not true. We know that is not true because that is not all the Government does in its own countermotion. We know that is not true because last week, the Government Members voted against motions that did condemn Hamas. Why do we not include it? Is it because we support the killing of civilians? Of course not. Is it because we support the taking of hostages civilian hostages? Of course not. Is it because we politically support Hamas? Of course not. Why? It is because we do not accept the narrative that history began on 7 October; that all the killings in this year by Israel before then did not matter; that the 17 years of blockade of Gaza did not matter; that the 75 years of dispossession, of ethnic cleansing, of apartheid; that none of that matters and none of that is relevant. We do not accept that. This new moment was be used not only to push for a permanent ceasefire but to say this is the moment to build a movement that is actually capable of assisting in winning liberation for the people of Palestine.

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