Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I do not welcome that a motion for a debate on an issue of this importance was given to the Opposition at 1.50 p.m. today. We had less than one hour to draw up amendments. This is not even close to being acceptable. To be quite frank, in its current format this motion offers absolutely nothing of substance to the debate. The motion the Government has presented, in its current form, skirts around the issue and makes no explicit commitment to intervene on the side of South Africa in its charge that a genocide is being initiated on the population of Gaza by the State of Israel.

Even more so, this motion loses any credibility when it asserts that the Government will "strongly consider an intervention in the South Africa vIsrael case at the ICJ, as a matter of urgency after the Court has made its order on preliminary measures". What exactly does the Government mean when it says it will "strongly consider an intervention"? Can the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, or any other Minister or Minister of State who will speak presently confirm that we ratified the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1978? Is that not the Irish Government's position now, as ratified in 1978? Part 1 of that convention includes the provision that state parties to the genocide convention have an explicit obligation to take measures to prevent genocide. Is the Government seriously telling us now, even though it does not lend its weight to the South African case, that if a preliminary determination is made that a potential genocide is ongoing, it will seek only to "strongly consider" intervening? That is an act of extreme cowardice. It is our role as a State to prevent genocide. It is not our role to define it nor prosecute it after the fact. That is the role of the court and we cannot muddle those two entities. We as a signatory have an obligation to assess the risk where there exists an obvious threat of genocide occurring. We are obliged to express those fears both to the court and to the state we deem complicit in this most horrendous act.

I put it to the Minister of State, Jack Chambers, that in the Tánaiste's contribution today he said the Government will undertake a rigorous legal assessment when the court has made its order after the preliminary stages. The Tánaiste has left the Chamber, but will the Minister of State ask the Tánaiste if he does not feel the legal opinions and the words of eminent Irish human rights lawyers and professors carry enough weight for us to intervene? I refer to people such as our former President Mary Robinson; Professor Siobhán Mullally and Professor Mary Lawlor, who were part of the UN independent expert statement as far back as 16 November 2023; and Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, who did us proud last week in advancing the case of South Africa to the International Court of Justice. Yet in several weeks' time the Government claims that we are going to do a rigorous legal assessment and sometime after that will decide if we will lend our weight. That is anathema to the ratification of the genocide convention we committed ourselves to in 1978 and to the express wishes of the Irish people.

Is it not also something we can simply see with our own eyes? Do we deny that more than 100,000 Palestinians have been killed, reported missing or wounded in Gaza since Israel began its operations three months ago? Do we neglect the current figure of 25,000 people dead, which I imagine will change by tomorrow given that 225 people are dying every single day and half of those are children? Do we neglect the fact that 85% of the population has been displaced? We must also remember that as far back as October 2023, we debated whether Israel could have bombed a hospital. Then they went and bombed every single hospital in Gaza. Now they are annihilating universities. They are targeting journalists. More than 100 journalists have been targeted for assassination and still we say that we will do a rigorous assessment of the facts. This is not in keeping with the express wishes of the Irish people.

In his contribution the Tánaiste mentioned that no country has joined South Africa's case. That is only kind of true. It is a blurring of the line and very purposefully done. Germany, the UK and the United States of America have already expressed their intention to join on the side of Israel and argue against the fact that a genocide is taking place. We know the motivation of those entities. We say that regardless of whether it happens tonight or when we bring forward our motion tomorrow, the Government must start the process, develop a legal strategy and put the factors into place. The Tánaiste also referred to the Russian case and said that it took us six months for us to intervene. The work did not start after six months, however; it started a long time before that. The Department of Foreign Affairs was presenting its case and building the argument. All we are asking of the Irish Government is to intervene at the nearest available opportunity to do so. That is what we are asking.

The Social Democrats have submitted a number of amendments we would like to advance. I also want to refer to a ceasefire. Of course we all wish, hope and pray every single day for a ceasefire. We accept that eventually a ceasefire may happen and bombs will stop falling, but what will be left of Gaza when it does happen? What buildings will be left? Where will the 85% of the displaced Gazan population go? Yesterday, a foreign minister of Israel spoke with other foreign ministers and talked about a displacement of the Gazan population into some island they are planning to build. It is horrendous. That we still sit here and debate the merits rather than actually say there will be immediacy in our actions is anathema to ourselves.

It has become a vogue at the moment for Israeli ministers and other Israeli people to write their names on bombs that will then be sent into the Gaza population. These are 2,000 lb plus bombs, which can destroy a space half the size of County Louth. This destroys any semblance of foreign policy achievement by the Irish Government. In 2022 the Irish Government brought together 82 signatories to sign the declaration on the use of large munitions in urban areas.

It was a foreign policy achievement and it has been obliterated right before the Minister's eyes. The Government brought together the signatories of the enactment. Has the Minister no pride to stand up and remind the signatories of their responsibilities? Tomorrow we will table a motion that we join the ICJ case.

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