Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The total Israeli blockade on humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip has now passed 60 days, in what the United Nations human rights chief, Volker Türk, has described as a "new unseen level" of humanitarian crisis. A recent report by Amnesty International stated that Israel was carrying out livestreamed genocide in Gaza, routinely targeting civilians and engaging in torture and enforced disappearances. We are on the third day of hearings by the International Court of Justice into Israel's obligations to Palestinians. The Government's intervention in that case was very welcome but it seems that since the St. Patrick's Day visit to Trump, we have been cowed by US pressure. Will the occupied territories Bill come before the Oireachtas by the end of this term? As we have seen with other legislation, the Bill can be tweaked on Committee and Report Stages. We need to send out a signal that we are taking this issue seriously and doing what we can to call out Israeli atrocities.

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