Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this very important motion. Every evening when we leave here Leinster House is lit up in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

That reminds us of a time of moral certitude within European and western democracies when such aggressive military action was taken by Russia in Ukraine that we all believed in what was right and wrong. We could all see the difference between right and wrong and there was a comfort in that. We had President Zelenskyy here and we had a level of solidarity across the European Union, the United States and the UK. However, it is also a reminder to me, every evening, of the hypocrisy of western democracies in the light of what is happening in Gaza. The biggest shock for me is the immorality of the response from the EU and Ms Ursula von der Leyen; from the US, which I might have expected; and from the UK. I want to take this opportunity to say something which is not comfortable for me to say. I want to call out the British Labour Party and its leader, Mr. Keir Starmer, from whom, as a potential incoming British Prime Minister, we would have expected better. His words have been a disgrace. His inaction has been a disgrace. He is disgracing his own party, the British Labour Party, and the labour movement. If that is the voice and inaction of Keir Starmer, many of us in the Labour Party in Ireland will think twice about campaigning for the British Labour Party in the upcoming general election there. I do not say that with any joy or any level of comfort but in this regard, we have to call out what we see to be wrong.

As has already been articulated, 25,000 people, half of them children, have been killed in 100 days. Let us not pretend that this is just about Gaza. We have had 358 killings in the West Bank in 100 days. That is 30 Bloody Sundays in 100 days and the Israelis are not going to stop because nobody is telling them to stop. There are no consequences to this. Israel can do whatever the hell it likes because it has learned, over generations, that it can do whatever the hell it likes. It is up to us now. I would say to those who criticise the Government that the Irish Government has gone further than most European countries in its rhetoric, in its stance and in what it has said. That is a fair comment. At a European level, people would point to Ireland as being one of those most firmly on the side of the Palestinian people. The Irish Government has been calling out, albeit in language that we might wish was stronger, what is happening in Gaza.

We cannot have a solution to this issue until we isolate Israel, as we isolated South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. There is no other way. We have tried everything else and it has not worked. They are, with glee, murdering and committing genocide. It is evil in our midst and we seem to be unable to call it out. Just as we stood against the evil of the South African apartheid regime, we have to call out and isolate the evil of the Israeli apartheid regime and the genocide it is committing on our watch. Until we break off all diplomatic, economic, sporting and artistic links with Israel, it is not going to learn and until we stand up to the United States, it is not going to learn. We cannot go to the White House in six weeks' time and gleefully hand over a bowl of shamrock to an administration that is backing this, cheerleading it, funding it and weaponising it. We cannot do that. I would also say to those political organisations in this Chamber who want to go there to raise money in six weeks' time that they cannot do that either. They cannot take money off these people. There comes a point when we have to say "No". There comes a point when we have to say to our friends and colleagues and those with whom we have deep political relationships that they are wrong, because some things are more important.

The sad point is that every time I leave Leinster House and I see the Ukrainian flag, it makes me feel that we are all hypocrites. That moral certitude we had - the sense of truth and justice that the West speaks about, and the sense that we are all in this together and that when we see evil, wrong or murder, we call it out - seems like smugness given what is happening now. There are 25,000 people dead, half of them children, and Israel is not going to stop. Who is going to tell Israel to stop?

In fairness, I know the Irish Government is going further than anybody else but we are just not going far enough. We have to call up the memory of how this country viewed the South African situation. We have to remember the women from Dunnes Stores who decided, even though they were poorly paid, that they would not handle South African fruit. That changed the world. The Irish Government should do something similar. It should say that we cannot go to the White House this year. This country has long historical and political links with the US but at this moment in time we just cannot morally look the US in the eye, hand its President some shamrock and say that everything is fine while its high-ranking politicians are over in Israel, signing contracts for missiles. The Irish-American joke Mike Pence, and others, are funding, supporting and cheerleading this.

What do we do? We have to support the South African action in the International Court of Justice. We have to recognise the state of Palestine, support the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill and break off all diplomatic, economic, political and sporting links with Israel. Unfortunately, we also have to come to the point of saying to our friends, be they in the White House or the British Labour Party, that they are cheerleading evil or are silent in the face or evil, they are wrong and that wrong has consequences. That might be uncomfortable but it is the right thing to do.

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