Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)

Where one stands on the genocide in Gaza is the moral question of our time. For the vast majority of us, the only action we can take is to attend a protest, write to our TD or boycott goods and services. However, there are 174 of us in here who have greater agency, 15 of us who have an extra special responsibility, the Tánaiste included. Members of Government must show the moral leadership cruelly absent across the world, with some notable exceptions, a cowardice that has allowed tens of thousands of children to be murdered and starved to death because of where they were born, where they happened to live. By implementing rather than merely not opposing this motion, Government has the chance to save countless lives and to kick-start a process where the UN and the discredited international community can finally reassert and find again their collective courage. It is about time the world, not a kleptocratic US Administration, took on responsibility for Gaza and Palestine, morally and in practice. The US has no moral authority whatsoever. It is drained from it. Let us, the rest of the world, mind the scene of what is left of ours. Nobody, not even the Israeli regime's grimmest and keenest supporters, can claim they do not know what is happening and what Netanyahu plans for the destruction and ethnic cleansing of Gaza. There is a step change in the approach of the UK, France, Canada and even Germany in recent days.

A narrow window is opening. Ireland has agency. We have power. We have shown this in the recent past. Along with other smaller states, we recognised the State of Palestine. This was dismissed at the time by some as tokenism. It will matter in the end. Political figures in France, the UK and elsewhere are now giving that idea some considerable thought. We moved in this Parliament to try to ban goods and services from the occupied territories. We were dismissed then as being unrealistic, accused again of a form of tokenism. I predict that such measures will now go mainstream and in larger, more influential countries. We said years ago that we should suspend or at least review the EU's association agreement with Israel. This is now, tens of thousands of massacred Palestinians later, the express official view of the majority of EU member states. This tells us that we in Ireland have called it right. Labour and the other cosignatories of this motion are calling it right again. The Tánaiste must call it right too. Let us move beyond the device of not opposing the motion to avoid a damaging vote for the Government, to implementing the motion's demands. Starving Gazan children cannot eat well-meaning statements. Let our Government build alliances and challenge the UN to assert itself again, to find its moral authority and courage again, to act to end the war, to allow for aid through the UN and to form a peacekeeping force to protect the people of Gaza and set the ground for a lasting peace and a just resolution.

See this speech in context