Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this motion. I thank the thousands of people who have taken the time to email and call my office. I thank everyone who has taken to the streets to push and to drive an Irish stance on this issue. We have wanted to have a collective stance as a nation, sending out a very clear message. That public pressure and activism is needed now more than ever. The Irish people know the historical importance of this issue. They know that as they are watching this unfold on their screens. This is what makes this different because it is in everybody's home every day of the week. Nobody can ever turn around in years to come and say they did not know. We know and we are faced with it every day. People rightly ask where the humanity is, and where the global structures and agreements that are meant to protect innocent people are. They have watched these structures and international agreements bend and sway to the ruthless objective of Israel to annihilate Palestinians.

The document presented by South Africa to the International Court of Justice is absolutely heartbreaking to read. It includes harrowing accounts of the suffering of Palestinians, which has cut young lives short; accounts of the complete lack of medical supplies, which has led to unnecessary amputation of limbs without anaesthetic, often undertaken by flashlight; and accounts by doctors of carrying out medical procedures without anaesthetic as their parents hold them and of pregnant women subject to Caesareans without anaesthetic. In the face of this unimaginable horror, the Government has technical arguments. The situation has become even worse since the genocide case was submitted at the end of December. Israel is now imposing a famine on Gaza as a weapon of war. My God, if that does not resonate with the Irish people, what will?

The Irish Government wonders if it might be genocide and if it is done intentionally. These are technical arguments to hide the cowardice of its position. Every country in the world should be rowing in behind the leadership of South Africa. Ireland needs to clearly support South Africa's case to the International Court of Justice. That is what the Irish people want. Maximum international support to advance the provisional judgments is vital. The technical arguments which the Government is hiding behind will just not wash it. That will be no good to the hundreds of children who will be slaughtered in the coming weeks if something is not done to get a ceasefire. This is time for everyone in this House to do the right thing. I say to the Minister of State that I understand the collective and the power of the collective but at some point in life one has to stand apart, stand up and lead the charge against the destruction of Palestine which is happening.

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