Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

A year into this slaughter, what has changed in the Irish position? After nearly 44,000 dead, including nearly 17,000 children, after more than 100,000 people injured, after 10,000 people missing, buried in the wreckage and the rubble, after an expansion of the conflict to Lebanon, nothing has changed. We still maintain normal diplomatic relations with Israel. We still maintain normal travel relations with Israel. We have actually increased our trade in dual-use technology with Israel. We continue to allow military aircraft carrying bombs and munitions to travel through our airports and airspace, and this Government still will not call Israel’s actions what they are.

This is a genocide. There is no doubt. There is no alternative motivation or terminology for Israel’s actions. The Israeli State is doing everything within its power to wipe the Palestinian people and the Palestinian State off the map. It has not made any attempt to hide this. Israel has been relentlessly starving, bombing and maiming the captive civilian population in Gaza and the West Bank, doing everything it possibly can to increase the already astronomical loss of life, doing everything it can to ensure that Palestine becomes entirely uninhabitable for the millions of Palestinians who live there. Hospitals are bombed and sieged, schools and universities reduced to rubble, refugee camps bombed and set alight. Heritage sites and cultural institutions across Gaza have been purposefully and cynically destroyed. An ancient harbour from 800 BC, a mosque that was home to rare manuscripts and one of the world’s oldest Christian monasteries are just a few of the hundreds of cultural sites that Israel has targeted over the last year.

These actions are an attempt not just to wipe out a people but all memory of a people, all evidence of one of the oldest living cultures in human history. These actions constitute genocide, so why will this Government not say as much? Why is it continuing to hide behind the excuse of waiting for an international process to be concluded? Why did it not have any hesitation in using the word “genocide” in relation to Russia’s targeting of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine? What was the difference there? I would have to guess it is the position of America and key European allies. It was easy to call Russia’s actions what they were when our western allies were standing beside us and when everyone was working together to implement an EU sanctions regime. This is different. The European response to the genocide in Palestine has been appalling in its moral hypocrisy. There have been no EU sanctions applied to Israel. Billions in EU trade continues to flow into the Israeli economy, directly funding an apartheid regime, directly funding a genocide. Some countries in the EU take it further, with Germany supplying 30% of Israel’s arms. We need to continue to work on an EU level to suspend EU trade, and I appreciate the Taoiseach’s efforts to progress this. However, how can we be taken seriously in demanding that the EU do everything within its power to take action when we are not willing to do the same?

The occupied territories Bill was first introduced to the Dáil in 2019 by a Fianna Fáil TD but as soon as Fianna Fáil entered government, it disavowed the Bill and said it was unconstitutional. Fine Gael, on the other hand, has always been opposed to the Bill. With just days left in office, the Government admitted the Bill can be enacted but it claims it has run out of time. It is a cynical and transparent excuse. If the Government wanted to pass the occupied territories Bill, it would have. If it was genuine about needing extra time to pass it, it would have accepted our offer to use this time slot, and Sinn Féin’s yesterday, to pass it. Alternatively, it could have kept the Dáil in session until it passed it, as it did for many other pieces of legislation it deemed a priority. It seems the occupied territories Bill is not a priority for this Government, and if it is not a priority in the face of genocide, it never will be.

On Tuesday, The Ditch published some very concerning information. The US ambassador to Ireland contacted the Government last month to warn about “consequences” if the occupied territories Bill were enacted. Apparently, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste’s office were warned about the “economic uncertainty” it would cause for some 1,000 US businesses based here. This stems from a US law that prohibits companies from complying with unsanctioned foreign boycotts. The ambassador then offered to connect the Attorney General and Government enterprise teams with “relevant offices in Washington” for “discussions to ensure the best outcome” for the legislation. The Government has still not clarified whether the Attorney General, or any other Government official or Minister, contacted counterparts in the United States to get advice on this. It has still not answered the crucial question: is this the real reason it is refusing to enact this legislation? Is the Government refusing to implement domestic legislation because it is more concerned about a backlash from the United States - Israel’s largest arms dealer - than the genocide unfolding before our eyes? If this is the cowardice shown by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party when faced with resistance from the Biden Administration, why would we have any faith they will take a stronger stance against a more hostile and vindictive administration under Donald Trump?

This is legislation the public are demanding in their thousands every week on the streets. They want to see the occupied territories Bill enacted now. We cannot wait until all our allies are lined up beside us before we act because the Palestinian people do not have the luxury of time. We have a legal responsibility under the Genocide Convention to do everything in our power to stop genocide. Instead, we are nearly facilitating it. We know Shannon Airport and Irish airspace are being used to transport bombs and weapons to Israel. We know this not from the Minister for Transport, not as the result of any inspections of military planes in Shannon, but from investigative work by The Ditch. Since these issues have been made public, the Government does not seem to have taken any action at all to prevent further flights. Countries and airlines are trampling over our neutrality and sovereignty because it is convenient for them, because cutting through our airspace means a smaller fuel bill and, crucially, because they know there will be no consequences. They know this Government will look the other way because it always has.

This position is not credible and it never has been. We cannot, as a state, claim to be militarily neutral when we are facilitating the passage of weapons through Ireland. By failing to act to prevent this, the Government is ensuring that Ireland is complicit in the slaughter of the Palestinian people, complicit in a genocide this Government refuses to name. Enough is enough. For 75 years, there has been no accountability for the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, for the denial of their basic rights, the seizure of land and all of the brutal injustices of an apartheid government. We must take every action we can as a state to ensure that Israel is held accountable. Symbolic gestures are valuable and have meaning, but we can do more than that. Ireland can suspend trade, travel and diplomatic relations. Ireland can end the use of Shannon Airport by the US military. Ireland can stop the export of dual-use goods to Israel. We can call this horror out for what it is: a genocide of the Palestinian people. However, at every opportunity, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have failed to take action. If they have not acted to date, why on earth would anyone believe they will do it in the future?

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