Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Over the weekend, violent Israeli settlers rampaged through the West Bank. They blazed a trail of devastation, burning down homes and public buildings and injuring dozens of Palestinians. In a separate attack last week, masked settlers sexually assaulted a Palestinian man in front of his family. They beat him with clubs, tied him up, stripped him naked and zip-tied his genitals. That attack was so horrific that it finally hit the international press but only because two human rights activists, an American and a Portuguese, were present to corroborate it. Palestinians in the West Bank are being terrorised every day by racist, violent Israel settlers and we rarely hear anything about it. In February alone, there were 511 attacks by settlers, who murdered five Palestinians. Now we see Israel invading and occupying southern Lebanon. The IDF is killing with impunity there, bombing civilian infrastructure, and forcing the displacement of 1 million people. My question is: how can the Taoiseach watch what is happening, not just in recent weeks, but for years, and continue to do nothing? When is the occupied territories Bill going to emerge from the black hole it has been hidden in? When is this Government going to act and not just think against Israeli violence?

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