Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

This motion is aimed at a practical measure that this country can take to bring to an end this slaughter of children, women and men that is happening in Gaza, with women and children making up the majority of those slaughtered. It is not just about revenge for the appalling acts on 7 October by Hamas. This is not just about revenge. It has gone beyond revenge, with the denial of the basics of life, like food, clean water, medicine, fuel and shelter. It is about the further killing of people.

Time is absolutely of the essence. Something like 5,000 children every month are being killed. Can we really wait while we are watching that? It is imperative that action be taken immediately. I am looking at the United States, and I am appalled at the President of the United States appearing to ask politely for Israel to restrain itself, yet at the same time, it is providing a huge amount of weapons to continue that slaughter. We are months looking at this now, and even last night I was looking at footage of a man who had just given an interview to ITV. The minute the interview was over, a sniper killed him. It is just appalling. It is out there, and people can see it. We are probably seeing less footage than we did, and the reason for that is that journalists have been a particular target, so that the world cannot see as it did before. We are seeing schools, universities, healthcare facilities and ambulances being taken out. The Geneva Convention is very clear on what are civilian targets and what is out of bounds for warfare. All of these fulfil those kinds of categories.

What is this about? It is about a land grab. It is about wiping out the Palestinian people and removing them from their homeland. That is what this is about. It is about a genocide and ethnic cleansing. I have to say that I was very proud of the Irish King's Counsel who represented South Africa in the case that was initially stated some weeks ago, and we are waiting for the response that we hope will come very soon. She said:

The United Nations Secretary-General and its chiefs describe the situation in Gaza variously as a crisis of humanity, a living hell, a bloodbath, a situation of utter, deepening and unmatched horror where an entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival on a massive scale.

That is what is happening. I can understand the people of Gaza feeling like the world has forgotten about them. I can see the paralysis, and we can all the see the paralysis, of the United Nations. There is a huge task for the International Court of Justice to be balanced in its decision because there is a feeling that international human rights law is stacked against particular countries. I can see why the Palestinians will feel that it is stacked against them because there have been huge numbers of resolutions passed, for example, at the United Nations and they have just been ignored. We cannot ignore a genocide. What we are looking for is for us to stand up, show leadership and attach ourselves to supporting this case. That is why we have asked for one thing in this motion, and I urge the Government to have another think on this.

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