Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Long before the current escalation of violence that we have seen, the genocidal attack on Gaza by Israel and the events of 7 October, I pointed out to the Government, and to Ursula von der Leyen when she was here, something that was not lost on the people of Palestine or the Middle East, which was the shocking double standards in EU policy when we contrast Europe's attitude towards Russia's brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine and decades of illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, a 16-year siege of Gaza, which, by any definition, is a crime against humanity and a collective punishment of the people of Gaza, decades of ethnic cleansing and the failure of the European Union ever to impose any sanction whatsoever on Israel. That was the case before October last year. That double standard continues. The Government has, under pressure, frankly, now begun to express what most people in this country and in the world think, which is that Israel is a rogue state and that a state capable of a genocide should be sanctioned and certainly should not be supported or given favoured trade status by Europe.

We are pouring billions into a war in Ukraine that is going nowhere. Understandably, we sympathise with the Ukrainian people as victims of aggression. The Palestinian people would have as much of a case to ask for armed support from the European Union as the Ukrainian people but they are not asking for that. They are just asking countries to stop giving guns to the Israelis so they can kill Palestinians. They are asking other countries to stop treating Israel like a normal state and giving it favoured trade status while it illegally occupies Palestinian territory, ethnically cleanses Palestinian territory, imposes a siege on Gaza and holds tens of thousands of Palestinians as hostages. Now, indeed, Israel is, in effect, holding Irish citizens hostage. Zak Hania and at least two other Irish citizens that I know of are being held hostage by Israel. That is outrageous. Does the Taoiseach not see the double standards? Does he not see how they would enrage, and are enraging, Palestinians and people across the world? The European Union throws the kitchen sink and billions of euro at arming Ukraine to resist what is a brutal and illegal invasion but gives effective support to Israel to conduct over a much longer period the same crimes and worse? It is now in the dock for genocide. What are we going to do about these shocking double standards? Surely the Taoiseach cannot deny they are obscene and stark double standards and hypocrisy.

I recently met representatives of the Western Saharan people. I do not know if representatives of the Government met them but they were here last week. They pointed out the same double standards. Under international law, they are subject to an illegal occupation by Morocco. The European courts have found in their favour but the European Commission is appealing rulings of the European courts against Morocco because of perceived strategic EU interests in backing Morocco in occupying the Western Saharan people. Unless these double standards are challenged in a serious and sustained way, why would anybody believe in international law or the moral credentials or principles of the European Union? Are those credentials and principles being exposed as non-existent?

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