Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

What is happening in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon is absolutely unacceptable. It is clearly in breach of international humanitarian law. In terms of what happened in northern Gaza in the last week, we witnessed war crimes of a shocking nature taking place. I immediately called that out in a statement in respect of what was happening in northern Gaza and followed that up at the Foreign Affairs Council on Monday this week. I really had to say to some of my colleagues around the table there that the European Union needed to do far more in respect of the horrific murder, slaughter that is going on in Gaza, and the collective punishment of an entire people.

I disagree with the Deputy saying this Government has not done anything. I do not like that rhetoric, that sort of partisanship in this debate or the almost holier-than-thou attitude from the Opposition vis-à-vis the Government. There is a collective view in this House on what should happen here. There should be an immediate ceasefire. There should be a release of all hostages. The holding of hostages for a full year by Hamas for a full year is equally heinous and should not be tolerated. There should also be an immediate surge of humanitarian aid. Ireland was one of the first countries to defend UNRWA, which is the most practical thing we can do for the people of Gaza and the West Bank and the Palestinians in Jordan and Lebanon. Despite all the rhetoric and "do this, do that", the most significant thing we have done in this was to stand up and stop the undermining of UNRWA and say to our European Union colleagues not to pull funding from UNRWA. We helped to reverse that policy position, which one Commissioner was advocating when he had pulled funds from UNRWA. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, acknowledges that. That is one thing. We were also one of the few member states, along with Spain, to recognise the State of Palestine. Everybody in this House wanted that. As soon as we did it, of course, everybody in the House said we were doing nothing, that is done; move on. The reality is that this created its own issues but it was the right thing to do as part of the Arab peace plan. Everything we have been doing has been working with Arab nations that want peace, namely, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Palestine itself. Talking to the members of the Palestinian Authority, they do not speak about the Irish Government like the Deputy does. They genuinely do not. They say Ireland is giving very strong leadership.

On the question of the occupied territories Bill, the ICJ's opinion does matter and does change the circumstances. I can elaborate on that with the Deputy is she wishes. I have no issue in talking to her and to other party leaders in respect of this. For far too long, we have too much simplistic narrative about the Middle East and we need to be very clear in how we progress this, making sure we can do it in an effective way, both politically and legally.

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