Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The death toll in Gaza has reached more than 30,000 people. Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world and under Israeli bombardment, its people have been brutally displaced and forced into ever more cramped and overcrowded spaces, most recently into Rafah. They are still being bombarded, even now in Rafah. We are witnessing Armageddon. There is nowhere left for a desperate civilian population to go in Gaza.

On 7 October, we saw the horrific Hamas attack on Israel and since 7 October, we have seen the loss of civilian life in Gaza on an unthinkable and unconscionable scale. In recent days, we heard the heartbreaking audio of the last hours of six-year-old Hind Rajab, pleading for help hours before she and her two rescuers were killed by Israeli fire, along with five members of her family.

Back in October, the Dáil voted to call for a ceasefire. In doing so, we were one of the first parliaments in the world to make that call but while making calls is important, it is taking action that counts. As long as Ireland delays taking further meaningful steps to put an end to the genocide in Gaza, our complicity in what is happening there is prolonged. There is so much more that the Government can and should be doing, and it would have the support of the Opposition in doing so.

For the Irish Independent today, Ellen Coyne writes that the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund has invested more than €4 million in companies based in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. These illegal settlements represent the thin end of the wedge of the same policies of the Israeli Government, policies which have resulted in the slaughter of so many children in Gaza, children like Hind Rajab. These Israeli Government policies are breaching humanitarian law, displacing people from their homes and destroying families and communities. By enabling the subsidising of businesses in occupied territories, Ireland is complicit and we know that complicity does not chime with the values of people here in Ireland.

While I acknowledge the Taoiseach’s engagement on measures such as the recognition of Palestinian statehood, it is not good enough to say “Wait a little longer”. How long must people in Gaza wait? The death toll is mounting, starvation is setting in and disease is spreading there. We in Ireland must take further action. We must move on legislation to stop Ireland from subsidising genocide and to end trade with occupied territories in Palestine. The Government has said it would prefer to take action on these issues by non-legislative means but there are perfectly good Bills waiting to be passed. I have received a legal opinion which indicates that the occupied territories Bill, initiated by Senator Frances Black, is possible to pass under EU law, so let us do it. Let us move to pass the occupied territories Bill. Will the Taoiseach commit to doing so? At the next European Council meeting, will he press for the suspension of the EU-Israel trade association agreement? We need to do more than call for a ceasefire. There is a solid view on both sides of this House that we need to take action now. We are hearing from so many people across the country of their utter distress and horror at the genocide unfolding before our eyes. We cannot sit back and be complicit.

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