Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With the greatest respect to the Minister of State, it is very disappointing that there is nobody here from the Department of Foreign Affairs. Before he left, the Minister for agriculture dropped a statement which said that as the Tánaiste made clear, interventions by states are not about joining one side or another but about aiming to assert a legal interpretation of the issue at hand. That sounds to me like someone who is looking for an excuse not to do anything. It sounds to me like a Government that does not care.

I support this motion, which calls on the Government to take its obligations under the genocide convention seriously. As far back as 16 November, UN experts highlighted evidence of increasing genocidal incitement against Palestinians. This is not a war, it is a series of illegal attacks. There is only one actor causing the destruction and that is Israel. When we have indiscriminate shelling, bombing and shooting; the denial of food, water and medical care; hospitals being attacked; debates being shut down; universities being taken over; children being slaughtered; famine being created; and people being rounded up in a ghetto, we have a clear picture of an attempt to ethnically cleanse Gaza. Human Rights Watch has accused the Israeli Government of using starvation as a weapon of war and of depriving civilians of the resources necessary for daily existence.

Some 25,000 people are dead. That is every single person in the towns of Killarney, Castleisland, Dingle, Cahersiveen and Listowel. It is a systematic attempt to eliminate the Arab population. Nowhere and no one is safe in Gaza. We cannot stand idly by. We should light up Leinster House in the Palestinian colours, recognise the state of Palestine and implement the boycott, divestment and sanctions Bill.

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