Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)

I welcome Her Excellency, Dr. Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid to the Public Gallery for this debate. My colleagues and I missed the start of the debate because we were meeting the ambassador, so we are just catching up with what the Taoiseach and Tánaiste have said.

We know that a bomb is dropped on Gaza every four minutes, on average. Since this debate began, approximately 15 bombs have fallen. Another 35 will fall before the end of the debate, making 50 bombs in total. More destruction, more war crimes and more death. We welcome these statements but seldom, if ever, has there been a topic on which this Parliament and indeed the people of this country have felt so impotent. The Irish people are enraged, saddened and left bereft by the suffering being inflicted on the people of Gaza. The traditional responses of the Irish people to such suffering, such as aid donations, fundraisers and the opening of their homes to victims are being denied, as no aid can get in and no victims of this genocide can escape. It is butchery, pure and simple, with the world watching on and with many so-called developed states having blood on their hands and allowing the slaughter to happen.

Despite the paltry number of trucks that have apparently crossed the border, there are no reports that this aid has even been delivered. In fact, we have some reports that even in those very few trucks that have gone over there is no aid, but in fact there may be coffins. That is what Israel is allowing to cross the border. The blockade which has been in place since March is essentially still in place. Médecins Sans Frontières has described the amount of aid that Israel has started to allow into Gaza as "a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over". Médecins Sans Frontières, UNICEF, the United Nations, UNRWA, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the list of trusted humanitarian organisations goes on, are all saying the same thing.

What do we hear from the Israeli side? Finance minister Smotrich has called for Gaza to be totally destroyed. He said that sovereignty would be applied to the West Bank between now and the end of the lifetime of this Israeli Government in 2026. He has called for the conquering and cleansing of Gaza. This is genocide. It is war crimes. There are no other words to describe it. The Israelis are clear in their intent and they are following through. Their attacks on journalists, with 219 Palestinian journalists having been killed since 7 October, show that not only are they killing men, women and children, they want to ensure that the full truth cannot get out.

With the European Union resolving to review relations with Israel, perhaps the international tide is turning on Israel but it feels like a day late and a dollar short. We in the Labour Party want to ensure that, in our role in the Irish Parliament to hold our Government to account, we are being constructive in offering some solutions, albeit within the constraints that we have.

The Security Council of the UN is broken. I know the Tánaiste believes that. We also believe it. We will have a different debate on that in the not-too-distant future. The power of the veto has crippled it and led to inertia. It has failed in its primary responsibility to maintain peace and security in Gaza. A total of 55,000 people are dead, including 15,000 children. Yesterday, a child, only one week old, was killed in an air strike. What an awful week for the life of that poor baby, born into starvation, living under bombardment every day until finally, on the seventh day, their brand new life was ended by one Israeli bomb. The Security Council is failing. We believe in the UN General Assembly and we still believe in the power of the United Nations. Here is where we believe the Irish State can act. We think the Government should look at the precedent that was set in the uniting for peace resolution. That could provide a precedent and mechanism for the UN to act to ensure we can provide a humanitarian corridor and peacekeeping force to ensure that enough aid can get into Gaza, which would be hundreds and hundreds of trucks per day.

The suffering is so high, the relentlessness of the Israeli bombardment is so extreme and our levers are so few, which is why we are asking the Government to consider what the Labour Party will be proposing next week in our motion. We are looking for cross-party support for this. Our President, Michael D. Higgins, arguably our greatest-ever President, has called on the UN General Assembly to act. Some people may take issue with our President straying into policy areas; I do not. What people cannot deny is that Michael D., more so than any public representative, has his finger on the pulse of Irish public opinion. I ask that we listen to our President.

While all of this carnage is taking place, Israel continues to enjoy the fruits of European cultural and sporting competitions. This needs to stop. We need to engage with international sporting bodies and, in the case of Eurovision, for example, RTÉ, to push for Israel to be excluded from international sporting competitions, at both international and club level, and from events such as Eurovision. This may sound somewhat frivolous in the face of such slaughter, but with such limited levers, we need to pull every one we can. Israel at all levels cannot feel welcome in the modern world when its Government is acting with such impunity in the name of its people. It is acting like a state that is above international law and no state should be. It needs to be treated like a pariah until such time that peace is in place and the rebuilding of Gaza can begin.

I and the Labour Party have published the occupying power securities and handling settlement goods Bill, which we hope to get signed off this week. This will outlaw the selling of Israeli bombs but it will also protect workers who do not want to handle goods from the occupied territories. This is something we will look for the Government's support on. We believe we need to break down the barrier between Opposition and Government to ensure that we as an Irish Parliament do everything we can for the people of Gaza and the Palestinians. In speaking with a senior activist from civil society last week, his message was that the stance Ireland has taken is welcome, but we should not clap ourselves on the back too much, because it is still not enough.

I firmly believe this not as a stick with which to beat the Government but as a message for us on this issue to break down those divides and to work together to be leaders, not just in Europe but globally, to stop the slaughter, protect the innocent and save lives. We are best when we are brave and we are pushing boundaries. I have said to the Tánaiste that I do not think what we have done is unimportant. The recognition of the State of Palestine, the advisory opinion of the ICJ and the work in the EU are important. We recognise that but we have to push. Many of us in this Chamber have young children. The Tánaiste and I both have children of a very similar age. In years to come they will ask us what we did. Right now, we will not say we did nothing but we have to say we can do more. I genuinely believe that. The Labour Party believes that. We can do more. We are going to put forward a suite of actions we hope the Government will be able to support in the next few weeks and months.

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