Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I and my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group condemn all war and violence. We also condemn the killing of innocent people in this war but we do so by condemning both sides and not turning a blind eye to what happened on 7 October, when women were raped by Hamas terrorists, others were killed and children were killed. Over 200 hostages were taken into Gaza by Hamas and up to 1,200 people were killed, including 200 who were attending a musical festival. Just stand back and imagine if a terrorist group from the North of Ireland came in here and carried out those atrocities on our men, women and children. What would the reaction be?

The current escalation of the war in Gaza is causing us all severe concern. The number of civilians killed in Israel's war on Gaza has been unparalleled and unprecedented. Such killings by either side engaged in conflict are unwarranted. That is why we support a full ceasefire. We condemn the fact that more than 13,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel's bombardment began after the 7 October attack in Israel. The official death toll from the Hamas attack stands at around 1,200.

This motion, if approved, may be perceived by some as taking a side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, potentially impacting Ireland's image of neutrality by calling for specific actions against Israel and endorsing the BDS movement. The motion aligns with a stance critical of Israeli policies and undermines Ireland's position as a neutral country. All hostages need to be released, including Emily Hand. As international pressure mounts on Israel to cease its military campaign, concerns persist about the country's reluctance to change its stance. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Saturday that he would reject any ceasefire that did not include the release of hostages held by Hamas. Israel's continued military operation has drawn criticism from various quarters, with calls for the country to stop the collective punishment of the Gazan population. Last week, we discussed a motion in here to expel Israeli ambassador. I felt it was an immature and unprofessional motion. The door must stay open, as hurtful and as hard as it is to allow that to happen at times. The party to my right, Sinn Féin, knows that as well as any other party in the country. For many years, its members were excluded from opening their mouths to the media or anybody else. The Troubles continued during those years but when those bans were lifted, peace seeped into our country. Since then, peace has been our way forward. My view was that expelling an ambassador would start tit-for-tat expulsions from Ireland and Israel, which would not gain us anything other than a bit of media exposure and we might not even get that throughout the world. As a neutral country, our role is to do our best to broker a peace deal. I plead with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach to continue to use our neutrality as the mechanism to broker a peace deal between countries that are at war, a severe and sad war, at this time.

Somebody spoke about the Irish model of how we got peace. That model is being looked at abroad, between Israel, Hamas and others, to see if it could be used in their country. It certainly can. There is only one way.

As far as I know, there will be a ceasefire for the next few days, which will, thankfully, get hostages out of danger. I hope it will work out to be a long-term ceasefire.

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