John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)

Yesterday, I listened to an interview that should haunt every one of us. Dr. Victoria Rose is a surgeon working on the front line in Gaza. She told us of the 2,300 families who were completely wiped from the Palestinian civil registry - gone, annihilated. Not one member of any of those families is left. She spoke of the 42,000 children who are the sole survivors of their families. They are known by the chilling acronym, WCNSF, which means, wounded child, no surviving family. Over the past 599 days, 54,000 Palestinians have been butchered in Gaza. Babies are starving to death. Food has been turned into a weapon and civilians are the casualties. This is a war crime. This is not a tragedy; it is policy. It is systematic annihilation. It is genocide yet the Government does nothing.

The occupied territories Bill has sat on the shelf for seven years. The Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill remains stalled. Israeli bombs still pass through our skies. Our Central Bank is facilitating the sale of Israeli war bonds, raising €4.5 billion for Israel's military campaign. Let us call them what they are: genocidal bonds. Dr. Morgan McMonagle, an Irish doctor, has just come back from Gaza. He has no political agenda whatsoever. He has seen the horrors first-hand. He has called it what it is, which is a genocide. Condemnation or strong words from the Government are not enough. Speeches are not enough. If we fail to act, Ireland will be little more than a bystander. We are complicit in that genocide. Action is not optional. It is a moral imperative. We must enact the occupied territories Bill, not a hollowed-out version of it. We must ratify the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill. The Minister should not hide behind dubious legal advice again. He should support this Bill and stop the sale of Israeli genocidal bonds through the Central Bank. History is watching. Will be remembered for our words or for our courage?

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