Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister of State and the Taoiseach go to the European Council next week, I want them to make it very clear to those who profess to defend European values that they cannot be selective in their condemnation of war crimes. I want them to take a clear message to the European Council that the attitude of official Europe to the Palestinian people bears no resemblance or relation to the attitude of Europeans on the street who the Council claims to represent.

Depriving the Ukrainian people of food, water and energy and bombing hospitals, civilians, schools and children are war crimes and crimes against humanity but when it comes to those same crimes in Gaza, the EU's response has been very different. Entire Palestinian families have been wiped out and entire neighbourhoods and communities wiped from the face of the earth. Not only did President von der Leyen not condemn Israel but she also gave its grotesque actions Europe's "full support". Nowhere in Gaza is safe. Homes, hospitals and schools have been obliterated. Places of worship have been bombed and destroyed. Even refugee camps have been bombed. This systematic annihilation of the Palestinian people is happening before the eyes of the world, yet Europe's leaders dither in their condemnation of Israel's crimes.

There must be a full and unequivocal condemnation of Israel's actions arising from this Council meeting and I expect the Government to press the case for this. Peace must be the objective, and what is needed is a ceasefire that is permanent and lasting, as well as a lasting peace process thereafter. War rages in too many places around the world; in Gaza, Sudan and in Ukraine, to mention but a few. We must press for resolution to conflict wherever it occurs. That means oppressors and occupiers must cease their murderous actions and abide by international law.

Comments I made at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs yesterday in this regard have attracted some attention, and I want to address them here. The Ukrainian delegation yesterday was outstanding. The report of the Ukrainian ambassador on Russia’s war against them was comprehensive. I spoke with her during the committee meeting expressing my support for Ukraine.

I asked the ambassador. H.E. Larysa Gerasko, about her family in Ukraine and we discussed the abduction of Ukrainian children to Russia. I extended my solidarity to Ukraine and in particular noted how difficult this must be for older people. It is worth remembering some elderly people in Ukraine may have survived the Second World War and indeed the Ukrainian famine of 1932 and 1933 and now they are suffering this brutal Russian invasion and are facing into another savage winter of war.

Sinn Féin’s position on the war in Ukraine is clear. We support the territorial integrity of Ukraine and utterly condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. What I said at the committee yesterday was an attempt to set out that peace is the way forward, but I made that point in a hurried way that was somehow misinterpreted. To Ukrainian people who thought I was suggesting that they accept an unjust peace, that was certainly not the case and I apologise to Ukrainians if that is what they heard. It was not what I intended, nor indeed what I think.

As we approach Christmas, our hearts go out to all those who suffer the scourge of war, wherever they are, and it reminds us all, of the need to work for peace and to resolve conflict worldwide because "peace" is not a dirty word. We must continue that work at home, and we must bring that message to the world, especially around this time, coming towards Christmas.

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