Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)

Of course I support the peace and of course we also support the priority of delivering aid to the starving people of Palestine, but that does not remove the elephant in the room of the occupied territories Bill, because that is the very tangible way we can enact sanctions and action against Israel. The aid and leadership we provided are very welcome, but people are keen to hear that, just because there is a ceasefire, that does not mean we continue to trade with illegal Israeli settlements in violation of international law. Just because there is a ceasefire does not mean Israel is not in violation of human rights clauses in the EU-Israel association agreement. Just because there is a ceasefire does not mean that the genocide did not happen and that people and nations should not be held accountable, because the ceasefire has not meant an end to the injustice, occupation and the killing of Palestinians. It is on us to press for action when many would be more comfortable moving on and pretending it is all fine now. Our eyes are open. We cannot say we did not know and we must not say that we did not act.

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