Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Does the Tánaiste know what is very disappointing? Although he may not have realised it, he mentioned that Hezbollah has fired 10,000 rockets, which I condemn 100%, but he never mentioned how many Israel has fired. That has been the narrative here all along. There has been criticism of Hezbollah, Yemen, Iran, Syria and everyone else. I know the Tánaiste has commented on this but what we are seeing at the moment is a genocide being committed by Israel. We are seeing the innocent men, women and children of a sovereign country, Lebanon, being killed as they are walking down the street or while they are in their homes. Israel's defence for this is that there is a Hezbollah commander or group in the area but it will wipe out a whole block of people.

The European Union was rightly outraged when Russia went into Ukraine. Where is the outrage for what is happening in Lebanon? Will the Germans or the French supply the Lebanese people with an iron dome system to protect Beirut? There is a system to protect Israeli cities but we will not protect other cities. Where is the protection for the people of Lebanon? What is the European Union going to do? The Tánaiste said that we have called for an immediate ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel. I support that call for an immediate ceasefire but it is not good enough for the European Union to have a double standard in how it views Russia and Ukraine as opposed to Israel and everyone else.

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