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

One in every 50 people in Gaza has been killed by Israel. Can you imagine the scale of that? Forty-six thousand people have been killed since 7 October 2023. We now have a ceasefire, but in the midst of the ceasefire that came into effect on 26 January, a two-year-old girl, Layla, who was being fed by her pregnant mother in the West Bank, was shot in the head. She was shot in the head by an Israeli army sniper. Three thousand toddlers have been murdered in 12 months. That is an unimaginable figure. One year ago, Hind Rajab bled to death while she pleaded, "I'm scared. Please come." The people who tried to rescue her were gunned down. She was six years old and was dying. The Israeli army intentionally left her to die while they murdered anyone who tried to save her life. This is the depth of the atrocity that this right-wing Israeli Government and army are bringing on the people of Gaza and the West Bank.

In 2023, €3.6 billion worth of goods were imported from Israel to Ireland. Much of these profits were made on the back of the grief of the Palestinian people. We should not have these goods in our shops. We should not have these services or this trade relationship with this state because what it is doing is profiting from genocide. How can that be right? Memory goes back to our own history. In 1845, 25 million bushels of corn were exported to Britain from Ireland. Three million live animals were exported between 1846 and 1850. Four thousand vessels carried food from Ireland to ports in Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool and London during 1847. Four hundred thousand Irish men, women and children died of starvation that same year. We must be ashamed that food is exported from the fields of starving children in the West Bank and Gaza to line our supermarket shelves, particularly in light of both the experience of our ancestors and our history.

In the West Bank right now, there is a two-tier solution where Palestinians are treated like second-class citizens. It is not me saying that. That is what is being said internationally. If we look at the way they are being treated, we can see that we are dealing with an apartheid state. This Israeli Government does not want a two-state solution. The only solution it wants is the one that was announced yesterday by the President of America, Donald Trump, which is that all the Palestinians will be pushed out of Gaza, pushed out of the West Bank and pushed to hell or to Connacht. We had to hell or to Connacht. The Palestinians should not have to face the latter. We think back to all of the millions of Irish people who died or emigrated and who built America. They built the houses and roads. Do people not remember history?

This is a very important piece of work. We could take a lead for the world. We are only a small country but I believe we are a great country. The Irish people have hearts, generosity and intelligence. They want this and we will support the Government if the wording is right. We want to back it. We want the Tánaiste to back this. This is an opportunity for Ireland to send out a message. We have said this for two years - and I will say it again - that we are against genocide, that we will not close our eyes and that we will not turn away while it happens. That is the reason for this legislation. The occupied territories Bill is so important.

I know the Taoiseach is not here, but 100,000 men, women and children died in Cork during An Gorta Mór. That was 100,000 people in my county alone. Forty-six thousand people have died in Gaza and the West Bank. Enough is enough. Enact the occupied territories Bill.

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