Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If this were not so serious, the Minister of State's play on words would be entirely laughable. To suggest that the Government's amendment is simply some small linguistic textual changes to our motion is, as I said, laughable, but also inexcusable. The Sinn Féin motion calls very clearly on the Government to make a declaration of intent that it will join the South African case against Israel under the genocide convention. The Government amendment includes the word "consider" before that demand. It is this equivalent of changing "do" to "do not". It completely undoes the purpose of this motion and, therefore, I am urging this House to reject the Government amendment. I am urging all those members of the Government who have joined with us in condemning the brutal Israeli attacks on innocent Palestinian men, women and children to vote according to their beliefs when we come before this House tomorrow night.

We should just think about what happened last Friday. To call it a game-changer does not even begin to outline the magnitude of what the International Court of Justice determined because it had options before it. It could have dismissed the South African charges, as Israel had wished, but instead, the members of the court - the highest court in the world, charged with upholding international humanitarian law and overseeing the genocide convention - said that Israel has a plausible case to answer. In other words, it is plausible that Israel is committing genocide. The bar of being plausible is high. How ashamed would any citizen of any country be that their Government was accused of plausibly committing genocide? We have a view that this goes beyond a plausible case, but, at the end of the day, the ICJ will make a final declaration.

A state that is currently before the International Court of Justice, which has decided it has a plausible case to answer for genocide, is also a state that enjoys the most beneficial trading, diplomatic and economic relationship with the most powerful entities in the world, including the United States and, to our shame, the European Union. Therefore, we have to ask how we can bring a state from plausibly committing genocide to stopping its acts of terror, including the bombardment of hospitals, schools, refugee camps and an entire civilian population, resulting in the displacement of 2 million people. How can we allow the most basic of humanitarian assistance to reach a civilian population that is undergoing a humanitarian catastrophe the likes of which we have hardly seen in our lifetimes? How do we stop it? We do something to force it to stop. We have been crying out, recognising that the words of Irish Government Ministers are much stronger than many other Ministers across the across the world but also recognising that words will not be enough in this instance. Words must be matched by actions. Our appeal to all the Members of this House is to take this action, which simply involves us following the very brave leadership of South Africa by making and joining the case against Israel. I urge Members of this House to reject the Government amendment and support the Sinn Féin motion.

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