Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One in every 100 Gazans has now been killed. The death toll has reached over 25,000. That is an absolutely terrifying figure. It is actually a figure that is impossible to comprehend but we have to comprehend it because we need to understand the scale of the loss and the genocide that is unfolding in Gaza. I know that, during an tAire Stáit's time as Minister of State with responsibility for the Gaeltacht, he got to know my home county of Galway. I will use it as an example. It is like every resident of Athenry, Barna, Clifden, Moycullen, Oranmore, Oughterard, Portumna and Ballinasloe all being wiped out in a four-month period. That is the scale of devastation visited upon those poor Palestinians currently in Gaza.

Yesterday, The New York Timessaid "The daily death toll in Gaza has fallen in half over the past month". That statement was met with absolute shock not because it was some kind of new and important statistic or one that reflected that the end was finally in sight, but because most people wondered how we could even know that the number of deaths is falling. Israel has bombed every hospital in Gaza. No hospital in Gaza is fully functional. The infrastructure of the Gaza health ministry has been completely and utterly demolished. More UN workers have been killed in this conflict than in any other and more journalists, who report on the deaths, have been killed than in any other conflict since the Second World War.

We have all heard the genocidal statements made by Israel's Government. Its minister for defence declared that Israel was fighting human animals and that it would eliminate everything. The country's Prime Minister said it was fighting Amalek, the biblical tribe God supposedly commanded be completely eradicated. However, what the Irish people, including the hundreds of thousands of them who have protested against the genocide unfolding in Gaza, see is a proud but defenceless population of Gazans who are currently undergoing a genocide, a population that has long been starved, subjugated and stripped of their most basic human rights and dignity. One in four are now at risk of starvation. The entire population of Gaza is at risk of famine. Women are having to give birth through Caesarean section without anaesthetic, resulting in emergency hysterectomies and death. On average, more than ten children every single day since 7 October have lost one or both of their legs. Many have had to undergo amputations without the use of anaesthetic. What kind of cruel world do we live in that allows that to continue without the international community actively doing anything about it? This is a crime against a humanity and the shame of the world.

I am shocked at this Government's lack of action. It was one of the first governments of a western nation to speak out but only a week ago the Taoiseach was ruling out actively supporting South Africa's case. There appears to have been some kind of shift in the Government's approach but only as a result of the public outrage at its lack of action or, perhaps, because another EU nation, Belgium, has now stepped forward to say it supports South Africa. I give credit where it is due to Belgium, but the latter is a former colonial power and it would have been far more fitting if we had been the first. We should have been the first and we should continue that support now given our history as the first western nation to oppose apartheid in South Africa. We can be thankful that Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh is part of the South African legal team. As a result, many Irish people felt that we were there in spirit. We are a signatory to the genocide convention and, as such, we are obliged to do everything we can to prevent the risk of genocide. Trócaire has said that this humanitarian disaster is without parallel or precedent.

A week ago, the last remaining university in Gaza was levelled. Of course, it is no surprise that Israel is denying access to education just as it is denying the lives of the people of Gaza.

It is trying to destroy their education. It is destroying their lives and history. We need to support South Africa's brave actions. The Government initially talked the talk but it must walk the walk, support South Africa and say "Stop the genocide".

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