Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)

I want to read a quote about this Bill:

If passed, Ireland and her Parliament will be sending a strong message, that it condemns the occupation of territories deemed illegal under international law. This Bill, at its most basic, is about upholding international law. It applies to illegal occupations anywhere in the world and not just to Israel and Palestine.

It was a member of the Minister of State's party, Deputy Niall Collins, who said that in this House in 2019. What has changed? What has happened in the intervening years is that there has been a genocide. Gaza has been reduced not to rubble or ruins but to ashes. Israel has carried out that genocide. The Irish Government says that it recognises the genocide. The Government was in here in 2019 saying "rah, rah, rah" but now it is sheepishly pulling back from its own Bill. It is a pity that the new Minister for foreign affairs is not here to listen to this debate. I cannot think of too many issues that are more pressing and that should be on her agenda right now. Again, this is another insult to the Dáil.

I issue a content warning for anybody listening, but soldiers accused of sexually assaulting handcuffed Palestinian detainees have received standing ovations in court in Israel. The stories that we have heard since the release of the Palestinian hostages have made our skin crawl. I am in a WhatsApp group called D15 with Palestine that has many local Palestinian members. They share videos that they get from within Palestine but we could not even post half of them on our social media because it would be too distressing.

We have heard a lot of guff in recent days, and I heard it again this morning as I drove in here, about the centre and how important that is to the Government. The centre is pro-genocide and pro-imperialism. Let us cut the crap here about the centre. The EU is not just trading with Israel; it is giving it favourable terms of trade. That is the centre. The centre is imperialism, now carving up Gaza. The Irish people have done a lot but the Irish Government has done absolutely nothing but talk. By the way, as well as reports on the treatment of detainees, we have seen reports of a shoot-to-kill policy but I want to talk about public opinion and why the Government is so against what the Irish people want. As my colleagues have said, Ireland has compromised its own sovereignty due to our FDI model. Approximately 75% of corporation tax comes from American multinationals and 69% of FDI is US based.

It has distorted our economy and many things relating to how we measure our success. It has created a deep structural link to Israel. I wondered why Ireland is the second largest trader with Israel. Lo and behold, when it is broken down, it is because Intel is here. According to a report into our FDI model and how it supports genocide, Intel had bespoke infrastructure created for it through investment from our Government. The Government's dependence on an economic model of capitalism in Ireland means that we are now not able to support any measures against genocide.

Ireland has become a financial offshoring base through the creation of the IFSC. It is a platform for companies, in particular US companies, to filter operations and profits through Ireland rather than Ireland creating its own industry. I do not have time to develop this point, but I will give some examples. The Azure cloud platform, which carries out mass surveillance of Palestinian mobile phones, came from data centres in Ireland run by Microsoft, as well as other countries. Project Nimbus, a €1.2 billion contract with Amazon and Israel, was possible because the data centres the Government loves so much create and hold that data here. The real reason for not passing the occupied territories Bill is not legal advice. Rather, it is the Government's cowardice and industrial policy, along with the Israeli lobbying that has been happening. This is about contagion. Israel does not want any government taking any action that will send a message across the world regarding what other governments could do. It is shameful.

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