Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)

The problem with this legislation is defining who are the terrorists in the world right now. The biggest terrorists in the world right now are Israel, the US and Russia. There are many other terrorist states also but they are the big three. To the best of my knowledge, the Government has only condemned one, which is Russia. We are trading and dealing with Israel. We are the second biggest trader, as has been reported. Of course, this Government completely kowtows to the US.

I ask again: does the Government condemn the bombing of Iran by the US last weekend? I would like the Minister to answer that because I did not hear any condemnation from the Taoiseach or from the Tánaiste. To bomb a nuclear site is extremely dangerous, and apparently up to 500 people were killed in Iran.

In regard to Israel, we now know that the Government does call it a genocide but it took quite a while. The reality is that Israeli terrorism is not being addressed. This directive has come from the EU. Most member states support Israel. The EU Commission president said Israel has the right to defend itself, just after it bombed Iran. The people of Gaza are playing their hunger games every day, risking their lives choosing between a hail of bullets or starvation, yet the EU Commission put that statement out.

This is the context from which this Bill is coming. This Bill is a massive attack on the right to free speech and expression and on the right to protest, and it would definitely see innocent people who are protesting against terrorism becoming victims of this Bill. It has already been called "the Kneecap clause" by other Deputies, which is the expansion of the definition of the offence of public provocation to commit a terrorist offence. This is the type of law being used against Kneecap right now.

I am sure the Minister will agree that the members of the band, Kneecap, are not actually terrorists, whether we like or dislike their music or what they say. The real terrorist is actually Keir Starmer, who is funding a genocide and arming Israel, not Kneecap. What defines terrorism and who defines it? I would love to hear whether the Minister agrees that Israel is a terrorist state and the US and the EU are standing over that.

The Amnesty International report, Under Protected and Over Restricted, published last year examined repression in European countries. It made the point that across Europe "the right of peaceful assembly is coming under severe attack, as states increasingly stigmatise, criminalise and crack down on peaceful protesters, imposing unjustified and punitive restrictions, and resorting to ever more oppressive means to stifle dissent". We have seen that in Germany, in France and in every single country. Italy is talking about introducing a seven-year jail sentence for blocking a road on a protest. In all of the countries that Amnesty surveyed, police impunity was a key feature after having carried out repressive acts along with horrendous injuries to protesters and so on. It is a Continent-wide pattern of repressive laws. I see this Bill in that context. It is a systemic rollback on the right to protest. We have already seen that.

I will give a couple of examples. Right now, Britain is designating Palestine Action, a group that protests against the state terrorism of Israel and the genocide, as a terrorist organisation. I heard the mother of one young woman who is in jail and not even allowed out on bail, after taking part in a protest, because she is a member of that group. That is the kind of thing that is happening right now. There is an Irish branch of that group as well, called Palestine Action, that has carried out protests here. Will it also be designated under this legislation? Obviously, Mo Chara of Kneecap, and the charges he is facing, has been well-documented. It was a very worrying turn to see peaceful women, Mothers Against Genocide, outside the gates of Leinster House on a Sunday night-Monday morning, being carted off by An Garda Síochána. The Minister has one interpretation of what happened, which he took at face value from the Garda Commissioner, despite the fact that there was no footage to back up what he said.

Either way, it was a completely unnecessary attack on those protestors. It is clear that this legislation is being brought in because the countries that are funding and whose arms companies are profiting from genocide want to ensure they are not protested against.

I also want to mention the Special Criminal Court because I know we will be asked to vote to maintain it next week.

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