Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)

I am returning to the issue of Palestine and the genocide that is going on there. This morning, we listened to RTÉ's report of what the Palestinian ambassador to the UN said. He spoke of how flames and hunger were devouring Palestinian children. We also listened to an eyewitness account of a doctor on the ground. I will provide a few figures, but how have we reached this point? How have we let this happen? A total of 54,000 Palestinians, including 15,613 children, are dead. The Lancet puts the figure for dead and injured much higher. More than 630,000 people have been displaced. At least 28 aid workers have been killed since 1 May, an average of one worker per day. Since 7 October 2023, 452 aid workers have been killed. What did Israel do today? It announced that it intended to establish 22 new settlements.

How have we allowed this to happen? I include myself in that question. We have let it happen because we have bought into a narrative that has been pushed for over 100 years - I would say 140 years at this stage - that the Jewish people were a people without a land and Palestine was a country without a people. Arising from that, the narrative took hold that they were entitled to that land, notwithstanding the Nakba in 1948 or the new Nakba that is happening under our eyes and noses. The narrative is that Israel is the only democracy and the bulwark against the Islamic religion and Muslims. We have all bought into that to a certain extent. When the Hamas attack took place on 7 October 2023, which we are on record for condemning, I also said that history did not start on that day.

I do not have much time, but I will read out some of the bullet points. On 6 October 2023, Israel controlled most of Palestine in complete defiance of international law. The people were kept under a blockade with electricity for less than a few hours per day. It continued the blockade of most of Gaza's population. At that point, Israel had built up an extensive infrastructure in the West Bank exclusively for Jews against international law. On 6 October 2023, Israel had already killed 250 Palestinians by October, including almost 50 children, in the most aggressive settler push across the West Bank for almost two decades. I am quoting from a new book called Catastrophe: Nakba II to be launched tonight by Fintan Drury. I invite all Members to go along to Hodges Figgis. I cannot find a more comprehensive and fair analysis of what has happened except The Hundred Years' War on Palestine.

It is time for us to reflect and stop the cognitive dissonance where we praise ourselves for taking the best action on Palestine and ask how an independent sovereign state - a republic - is standing over a narrative that is utterly false regarding Israel.

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, for your forbearance.

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