Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I have been very consistent in this House, as the Government has been, in condemning Israeli attacks on Gaza and the continuing bombardment of Gaza. We have been absolutely consistent, without question. We have taken a whole range of steps since the outbreak of this terrible war and the horrific attack by Hamas on 7 October, which also deserves to be roundly condemned. I have done that, too. The blockade of the past 50 days, when no food, no medicines and no essential supplies have been allowed into Gaza, is a war crime. Of that, in our view, there is no doubt. It contravenes international humanitarian law. It is horrific in its enactment and implementation.

Ireland has strongly supported UNRWA with, I believe, approximately €58 million, which is significantly per capita ahead of others. That is not the point, but we have. We have supported the organisation not only financially but also diplomatically and politically. We made efforts to ensure that when the storm was blowing and efforts were being made to try to undermine UNRWA, Ireland stood up and told the herd that was moving in that direction to stop because we needed to continue to support UNRWA. It is the only organisation that can play any meaningful role in the reconstruction of Gaza and the continuing provision of humanitarian supplies to Gaza. There has to be an immediate opening up of humanitarian access. We have recognised the State of Palestine. There was a lot of pressure in this House for us to do that. We did it with other countries to try to create leverage with the Arab peace plan and get momentum behind that. With Norway, Spain, Slovenia and others, we collectively did that. We have also intervened in the genocide case that South Africa has brought before the ICJ. We have made a thoughtful, strong and comprehensive legal intervention around the issue of the prevention of humanitarian aid in a time of war and invited the court to broaden its definitions in terms of intention as well as the prevention of humanitarian aid to a conflict area, in this case Gaza, so that they are broadly in line with the convention's definition. It was a well-informed submission that took a lot of criticism from different quarters. Nonetheless, it was an intervention that was considered and very well-informed and had greater credibility internationally because of that than would otherwise have been the case. It was not just a political or superficial intervention but a substantive one.

The bottom line is that we must do everything. We can add with others to keep the pressure on through all the international forums of which we are a member, but we are not responsible for the actions of ministers Katz, Smotrich, Ben-Gvir and others, which are not in our name.

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