Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)

Week after week, for 20 months, we come into this Chamber and talk about the most recent act of depravity that we have seen rained down on the people of Gaza by Israel. We talk in this Chamber about children who have been shot in the head, children who have been shot in the chest by snipers, children who have had to battle their way out of fires while their siblings and parents burned behind them, and children whose parents write their names on their bodies because they are conscious that if the family is wiped out, they want their child to know their family name so it will live on with that child. It is absolutely horrific.

Every time we talk about it in this Chamber, we think it cannot get much worse and Israel cannot go any lower, yet it does. I know everyone in this Chamber feels this and is horrified by what is happening in Gaza. Everyone in this Chamber knows we have a major responsibility here to deal with it and to try to stop it. We all know what our constituents, family and friends feel about it. However misguided the feeling is, everyone in this Chamber thinks we are doing everything we can, but we are simply not.

Today’s motion is a relatively small action to stop the Central Bank approving bonds that are being awarded in the face of a genocide that has been recognised by the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach in this Chamber. We hope that this small action - that sense of bravery - from the Irish people will lead to other countries doing similar. We hope that, at some stage, we will get the momentum that there is a level of accountability for Israel that we have not seen to date, and that Israel recognises that people and countries will stand up and say, “We see you; we see exactly who you are; we see what you are doing; we will not stand by and allow it to continue; and we will do everything in our power to uphold international law.” If we do not have international law, what do we have?

Where is the safety for anyone? I ask one thing of the Minister today. I ask him to ensure that all Government TDs have a free vote on this issue and that all those backbenchers who support the Minister in the decisions he and his Cabinet colleagues make every week be given the opportunity to reflect their conscience in this vote and to reflect what their constituents, their family and their friends want them to do. I ask that they be given the same opportunity the Independent members of the Minister's Government have been given. It is not fair that any backbencher would have to vote against this motion, which is a relatively simple motion that gives the Government control over how it manages the measures within, when other Independent Members who swore they were going to support the Minister's Government through the good and the bad can listen to and represent their constituents and know that they did what they could in the face of this genocide.

The Irish public deeply wants us to take action. They have seen this go on for far too long. They are starting to take things into their own hands. A number of Irish citizens will be marching to Gaza in the coming weeks. People feel very strongly about this and they want us and the Minister to do more. The Palestinian people need us to take action. They cannot withstand this any longer. The future demands that we take action. When we look back and see what our role was and where we stood on this, we should be able to stand proud and know that we reflected the views of the Irish people, did what was right and stood by international law and the people of Gaza in the face of these horrors.

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