Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have to say that I am disappointed. We should be here today with one voice and one motion that should unequivocally condemn the actions of Israel. Of course, I am on the record as condemning Hamas, but we are way beyond that now. The figures have been mentioned already. Some 25,295 Palestinians have been killed. Just yesterday, four Palestinians were struck and killed as they were trying to recover corpses in Khan Younis, and so on. We stand here today with a speech from the Tánaiste and a motion that bears no reality in relation to what we should be doing as an independent Republic and a sovereign state.

We should be showing leadership as a neutral country. Instead of that, we are playing games.

I welcome the speeches of Government backbenchers. Clearly, the Government itself is out of touch with its own backbenchers, and certainly out of touch with the protestors who have filled the streets of Dublin, Galway, where I have attended every protest, and Killarney. They are telling us to use our voices to stop the slaughter, yet the Government cannot agree with us on a clear motion stating that what Israel is doing is wrong. In fact, while it condemns the ongoing bombardment of Gaza, you would think the bombs were just dropping from the sky. Israel fails to be mentioned.

Turning to the submission to the ICJ, I thank South Africa and its legal team. We have been quoting the President of Israel, its Prime Minister and its various ministers, and that is completely set out the document. When we talk about a two-state solution, which the Tánaiste has said he believes in, I will quote what one of the Ministers have said:

[When] they return here [they] will find scorched earth. No houses, no agriculture, no nothing. They have no future.

That is what has been clearly set out by the leaders of Israel, from top to bottom, yet we cannot agree on a motion that sets that out. If we look on Israel as our friend, it is our duty, not just under the genocide convention, to tell our friends that what they are doing is wrong. To equate our criticism and condemnation of the actions of the Israeli Government and the army to antisemitism is completely out of bounds. It is unacceptable to do that. It is an insult to the Jewish people and to the brave Jewish people who have come out, at great cost to themselves, and said that what the Israeli Government is doing in their name is absolutely wrong.

I ask the Minister of State to read the submission by South Africa. At the very least, we should be supporting and lauding it for having the courage to make this submission. We should have one motion in all our names; that is the message that should be going out to Israel and the Israeli ambassador. That is not the same as being anti-Jewish; it is pro-Jewish, pro-Palestine and pro-life. It is an absolute obscenity for the Tánaiste to have said in his contribution that the people of Palestine can wait no longer when that is exactly what we are allowing to happen.

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