Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)

It is deeply harrowing to witness the devastation unfolding in Gaza, as every Deputy has said. As we speak infants are starving. Families are without clean water or basic medical supplies. According to the WHO, nine out of ten people in Gaza now face crisis-level hunger. I have heard Deputies across the Chamber refer to the Great Famine but it is actually the great genocide that our people faced when we had grass stains on our mouths and when lies upon lies were put on what was being inflicted on our nation. This is not a failure of logistics that is occurring in front of us. It is deliberate denial of humanitarian relief. The destruction we are seeing is not collateral damage. It is a systematic obliteration of civilian infrastructure - homes, schools and hospitals. As Deputy Tóibín said, over 53,000 people have been killed, the majority women and children. The United Nations has warned of the war crimes. We know these are war crimes. Netanyahu is a war criminal. Human Rights Watch has stated bluntly that starvation is being used as a weapon of war. This is a reality. This is not just a humanitarian catastrophe. It is an attempt to forcibly remove the Palestinian population from Gaza.

It is illogical what is occurring among us but there is a shift occurring across EU states. We saw what occurred in the House of Commons yesterday. Ireland has been a moral voice before. In the 1980s, we stood firm against the apartheid state of South Africa, started by the Dunnes workers. We were not silent and we must not be silent now.

The only way to ensure the urgent flow of aid into Gaza is for us to apply maximum pressure on the Israeli Government diplomatically, economically and politically. Words are no longer enough. Ireland must lead the growing bloc of EU countries that is shifting and calling for the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement. Article 2 of that agreement clearly states that respect for human rights is an essential element of the partnership. That is something we are not seeing. The clause means nothing if it is not enforced. We must also speak frankly to the hold-out member states who continue to block action. History will judge them and us, and it will not judge any of us kindly.

I am not directing this at the Minister of State but at the war criminal government that Netanyahu has created. We owe it to the people of Gaza, the principles of international law and our own conscience as a nation that once knew oppression to act now and deliver.

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