Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)

I second the motion and commend my colleague Deputy Smith and all in the Labour Party for drafting and bringing it before the House. The Labour Party has provided as many options as it can to Government to take further action against Israel and its campaign of genocide. With more than 50,000 Palestinians murdered and their infrastructure and society being wiped out around them, I struggle to imagine how normal life will ever return to Palestine. That is, if there ever has been a normal life for Palestinians. For decades, they have dealt with a powerful occupier funded by the world's best-resourced warmongers. They have had their land and homes stolen and have suffered apartheid for years. They have seen their families murdered and children slaughtered in front of them. They have had their cities, towns, schools, hospitals and lives decimated. The trauma that Palestinian people and children will carry is unbearable. We see very clearly what is happening. Hospitals and schools have been destroyed and thousands of children have been murdered. The oppressor does not want Gaza to ever be rebuilt. It does not want a new generation of Palestinians growing up and learning about what has been done to them. It wants the Palestinian people wiped out completely.

European Union leaders have been turning their backs to acts of genocide throughout this entire onslaught waged by Israel and plamásing Netanyahu. Tens of thousands of innocent people are being slaughtered while Israel is being supplied with military resources by the USA, the European Union and the United Kingdom. Since I was elected to this House in November, I have received approximately 5,000 emails from people in Ireland pleading with every one of us in this Chamber to do everything and anything we can for the Palestinian people. They call on us to condemn genocide, act on the boycott, divest, campaign for sanctions, stop the misuse of Shannon Airport by US military operatives, condemn the inaction of the European Union and its enabling of Israel and enact the occupied territories Bill. People call on us to take action; they are tired of words.

We hear the cries for help from the people of Gaza. That is why we have brought forward this motion to mandate the Government to call for a new emergency special session of the UN General Assembly at which Ireland should table a resolution noting the failure of the Security Council and the international community to act to end Israel’s war on Gaza. I sincerely hope the Government will work with us on this.

I struggle to say something that has not already been said for years. I conclude with the recent words of Dr. Mike Ryan, who summed up where we are now. He stated:

We are breaking the bodies and minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza, because if we do not do something about it, we are complicit in what is happening before our very eyes. We are complicit. We are causing this, you, us and everyone who does nothing about it ...

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