Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)

Article 1 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which came into effect in 1951, is very clear: "The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish." It is now beyond question that Israel is guilty of committing war crimes in Gaza and that Israel is now committing the crime of genocide in Gaza. Senior Israeli politicians have no qualms expressing publicly the most extreme positions. On Monday, Nissim Vaturi, deputy speaker of the Israeli Parliament said, "We want to remove all the Arabs from Gaza" and the West Bank. He previously referred to Palestinians as scum and subhuman. Earlier this year, he called for the killing of all Palestinian males and has echoes of fascist ideology.

There are several conservative Jewish rabbis who are highly critical of Zionism. They see it as a rejection of traditional Judaism and its values. The oppression and crimes committed against Palestinian people for many decades were not a justification for the Hamas assault on 7 October 2023. What happened on 7 October was not a justification for Israel's two-year assault on Gaza. Hamas was and is a bloodthirsty terrorist organisation. However, we must not forget that for many years Benjamin Netanyahu and his criminal crew supported Hamas as part of its strategy to undermine the Palestinian Authority. Writing in the Financial Times on 23 May, former Israeli Prime Minister Mr. Barak described how Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged and facilitated the transfer of around $1.5 billion from Qatar to Hamas over a period of years.

That was part of a calculated policy to split the Palestinian movement and prevent a two-state solution. In the months prior to 7 October 2023, repeated warnings from their own espionage services regarding a possible major Hamas attack were ignored by the Israeli authorities. Warnings from Egypt in the days immediately prior to the 7 October attacks were also ignored, and in the final hours before Hamas attacked, further warning signs were not fully responded to by the Israeli security services. Even now, in a further twist, Israeli security forces are arming Palestinian militias and criminal gangs opposed to Hamas.

The second anniversary of the attacks of 7 October is next week. During the past two years, Israel has engaged in a sustained campaign of total destruction, carnage, starvation and genocide in Gaza. In a recent meeting, Mr. Herzi Halevi, former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, acknowledged that more than 200,000 people have been killed or injured in Gaza. Internal Israeli intelligence reports indicate that 80% of the casualties are civilians. Approximately 80,000 children have been killed or injured in Gaza in the past two years. Speaking on Israeli television, the former head of Israeli military intelligence, Mr. Aharon Haliva, said that 50 Palestinians must die for every Israeli killed on 7 October and it does not matter if they are children. The deaths were necessary, he said, as a "message to future generations" of Palestinians.

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