Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

I thank the relatives for being here and for the sacrifices they themselves are making, including extra familial responsibilities and the worry they are going through. I thank them for the sacrifice their relatives are making in putting themselves in danger. The flotilla they are participating in is at the vanguard of a global uprising of millions of people against genocide, Zionism and imperialism.

It helped to inspire a 24-hour general strike of Italian workers that, in turn, put pressure on the Italian Government to send naval ships. Spain then came under pressure. Türkiye also came under pressure to send ships. The strength of the flotilla is that it is people acting. Incredibly, 28,000 people volunteered to participate in the flotilla and put their lives on the line. That speaks to the skill of the global movement. They have acted while governments like our own have failed to act and other governments in the west act to arm, fund and support genocide.

Israel is scared of the flotilla; there is no question about that. Let us consider the smear campaign describing it as a jihadist initiative and a Hamas flotilla and calling the participants terrorists. I read a tweet from an Israeli ministry, which had a picture of George Galloway beside someone else stating it was a particular person but, in fact, it was someone else entirely. That was presented as evidence that this is a Hamas flotilla. In a way, it is laughable and ridiculous, but it is very scary because it is a lie designed to prepare the ground to justify the kind of actions that happened on the MV Mavi Marmara in 2010.

It is why we have to say to the Government that, while it is welcome that we are all coming together, we in People Before Profit have signed up to a motion with which we do not fully agree. We think it is unbalanced and does not reference the almost 10,000 Palestinian hostages. It approves the New York declaration, which denies the right of Palestinian people to choose their own representatives. We signed up to it so that we can have joint words, but where will the action be? At the very least, will the Government not agreed to send an observer on the legal boat. The Government has to act.

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