Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is day 116 of Israel's brutal, indiscriminate and merciless war against the people of Gaza. It is a bombardment that has stolen the lives of men, women and children with the Israeli war machine and its Government killing more than 26,000 civilians. More than 18,000 of them are women and children. Some 1.9 million people have been displaced with those who have so far survived this onslaught enduring inhumane conditions that we cannot ever comprehend. Tens of thousands of children have been orphaned. Hospitals, ambulances, schools and homes have been targeted, destroyed, and reduced to rubble. Before the eyes of the world, Israel has unleashed a storm of death and destruction from which no Palestinian man, woman or child can escape. There has not been a more lethal military campaign in recent times and much of the world has watched on with the Israeli Government acting with impunity and without a trace of morality or respect for human life.

Sinn Féin stands with the Palestinian people. Ireland stands with the Palestinian people. Our support for the cause of Palestinian freedom and justice has never wavered and has never been stronger. It is time for this Dáil and this Government to stand with them and hold the Israeli Government, a government fuelled by racist hate and genocidal intent, to account. My party and I commend Deputy Carthy, who has brought this motion before the Dáil, as he did in November, calling on the Government to refer Israel to the International Criminal Court for its onslaught on Gaza and its population. Regrettably, the Government opposed that call at the time.

We commend the action of South Africa in bringing a case against Israel before the International Court of Justice under the genocide convention because it is crystal clear that the only way to give effect to the ICJ judgment is for a full and permanent ceasefire. The court found that South Africa had a plausible case and that Israel has a case to answer for violations under the genocide convention. It is now time for this Government to act on behalf of the Irish people and to join South Africa in its case to hold Israel to account for its crimes against the Palestinian people. Israeli impunity must end and justice must prevail.

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