Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)

Constituents and people across the 32 counties of Ireland are watching on in horror. They depend on us to take action with regard to what is happening in Gaza. There is merciless bombing of hospitals, clinics, homes and tents, with families, children and men being slaughtered. There is forced starvation and famine while convoys of food are a mile or two away. Men and women are being tortured. What the Israelis are doing in the prisons is absolutely shocking. Israel stoops to ever-lower depths of cruelty and inhumanity on a daily basis. Israeli terrorists take potshots at kids, families and women, as well as at donkeys. They kill animals and other targets just for fun each day. All of those in the Israeli Government and the military command need to be designated as war criminals and terrorists.

I listened to lectures about terrorism for years. This is terrorism on a scale we have never seen before. This country is now the home for the selling of war bonds that assist Israel in carrying out the genocide. No assistance should be given to the terrorist State of Israel. It is inconceivable to assist Israel at a time when its forces are engaged in terrorism, genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine and when there is slaughter on a daily basis. The Israeli Government needs to sell its war bonds. It is a huge part of its expenditure that is then spent on bombs, rockets and funding illegal settlements. It is funding war and terror. It is blood money. Excuses about not being able to do it need to be pushed to one side. The Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers has advised that this can be done.

I commend the Labour Party on putting forward this motion, but we need to go much further. We need to: pass the occupied territories Bill and include services and goods in it; stop the use of Shannon Airport and stop overflights for the transportation of weapons to Israel; continue to press for the suspension of Israeli-EU trade agreements; and join with other states to call for an emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly at which Ireland would table a resolution, as set out in the motion, to call for collective measures to enable the development of a lasting ceasefire and a sustainable peace agreement, the putting in place of an international peacekeeping force to protect Palestinians and the commencement of negotiations for a two-state solution for the sovereign State of Palestine to be recognised. Please act. No more words. We need action.

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