Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim míle buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Táim ag díriú isteach, a Thánaiste, ar an gcinedhíothú atá ag tarlú. Agus muidne i mbun cainte, tá cinedhíothú ar mhuintir na Palaistíne ar siúl. Táimid ag fáil na mílte aighneachtaí, gach Teachta Dála anseo, ag cur brú orainne ceannaireacht a thaispeáint agus rud a dhéanamh de réir ár mbriathar. There are many things I would like to engage with the Tánaiste on today but the ongoing genocide is uppermost in my mind, our colleagues' minds and, more importantly, in the thousands of emails that we are getting imploring us to do something in addition to our sweet words.

There is total disregard of international law by Netanyahu, the Israeli Government and its army. This is a body of international law that was developed to ensure that the very slaughter we are witnessing would never happen again, yet we are seeing scenes of horror and destruction in Palestine that were described by the UN rapporteur this morning and by an Irish doctor yesterday. In the past three days, we have seen the ceasefire ended unilaterally by Israel and an invasion by air and land. There are bombs dropping on defenceless civilians. We do not know the figure, but it is ranging up to 1,000 persons, 70% of whom are women and children. Of course, we have been told by the UN rapporteur that that is the ratio since the day Israel started its genocide. This is despite Israel being under a legal obligation by the highest court in the world to dismantle the occupation by the end of this year. We are not seeing that but an escalation in the violence and the genocide and we are openly informed that they are back to finish the job, back to ensure that no Palestinians will be left on Palestinian land. The people who are there are surviving among the dead bodies of their families and their people. There is no water, no energy, no hospitals and they are being starved to death, and we talk. What is Ireland doing? Along with our sweet words, we are actively colluding with genocide and with the slaughter of innocent people.

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