Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing this motion,which is very reasonable. It is a minimalist motion that is simply asking for the Government to take seriously its obligations under the genocide convention and support South Africa in whatever way we see fit really. I cannot think of a more basic motion to remind the Government that it has obligations under the genocide convention.

With regard to the comments from Deputy Michael Collins, let me tell the Deputy that Palestine has been under siege for quite some time. I have the greatest respect for Deputy Collins but if he takes the trouble to read the submission from South Africa on pages 59 to 67 it would leave him in no doubt - not about Hamas who I am on record as condemning - as to what the Israeli President, Prime Minister and all the various members of the Knesset and the army want to do. Just in case he is still in doubt and thinks it is me exaggerating, one Israeli army colonel said: “[w]hoever returns here, if they return here after, will find scorched earth. No houses, no agriculture, no nothing. They have no future;”  Another colonel said:

Vengeance is a great value. There is vengeance over what they did to us... This place will be a fallow land. They will not be able to live here.

That is included in the submission to the ICJ from South Africa and that is quoting directly from the original sources.

I stand here today and I am appealing to the Government to do the right thing. It is a basic, simple motion that we stand as a Republic and an independent sovereign State and use our voice while we still have credibility. That credibility is rapidly running out. Last night I asked the Tánaiste a question about what money goes to Ukraine. With the help of his answer and the fact sheet from the EU we know there is €67.7 billion going from the EU member states and European financial institutions to Ukraine in various guises. That is €67.7 billion. I asked what they have done for Gaza and Palestine and the Tánaiste said they were giving money to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency UNRWA and various organisations. Most of those organisations have been labelled as terrorist by Israel and all of their offices have been raided. Of the 25,295 people dead, 151 were UNRWA workers, supposedly the organisation that we support. In his speech we were told that the people of Palestine cannot wait and yet that is exactly what the Government is doing. We are going to wait to see what the big boys do in Europe to see what motion can be put together. We are not part of the big boys' club. We are an independent sovereign State. We call out when something is wrong and this is wrong. At the very least we should support the proud South African State that has taken this case and stand with it. That is the most basic thing we could do.

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