Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I move:

That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to prevent and address the commission of the international crimes of genocide and apartheid by the State of Israel, by providing for the establishment of economic sanctions.

This Bill, in line with our moral and legal obligations under the Genocide Convention, international conventions on apartheid and international law, calls for a complete boycott of all economic relations with the State of Israel for the crimes of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide and the ongoing persecution and oppression of the Palestinian people.

There is a narrative that Israel's only crimes are illegal settlements on the West Bank or that the genocidal slaughter we have seen over the past two years in Gaza is simply the outworking of the extremism of Netanyahu and a few individual ministers. The truth, of course, is something very different. The truth is: Israel is not now or never has been a normal state. The State of Israel is a death machine directed at the Palestinians and whose sole purpose is the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their lands. This has been the case since 1948 and the genocidal slaughter we have witnessed over the past two years is simply the outworking of that horrific reality.

It is the failure of the world - the international community, including our own Government, the EU and other governments - to acknowledge the genocidal nature of the Israeli regime and the fact that it is based on apartheid and ethnic cleansing. The continued extension of political cover, arms, economic support and favoured trade status has actually emboldened Israel to commit the genocidal crimes of the past two years.

I have not got time to go into the evidence, but if one looks at the statements of ministers, members of the military and the Israeli Knesset, what one sees again and again are clear statements of genocidal intent. Netanyahu has publicly declared his intention to erase Palestine from the map and that history goes back for the entire history of the State of Israel. Just as we did with apartheid South Africa, the time for treating Israel as a normal state has to an end. It must be isolated from the international community as we did with apartheid South Africa.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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We are introducing this Bill today because the Government has failed to put its money where its mouth is. On Palestine and Gaza, it is all talk and no action. Sanctions by Ireland on Israel would make a real difference because, shamefully, Ireland is now the world's second largest importer of Israeli goods. During the genocide of the past two years, trade between Ireland and apartheid Israel has exploded from €198 million in 2020 to €3.24 billion in 2024. These are not consumer goods. If they were consumer goods, then the Irish people who have stood steadfast with Palestine, marched week after week and taken direct action would have boycotted these goods. Over €3 billion, or 92%, of this trade is in so-called electronic integrated circuits and micro-assemblies. An excellent investigation by Uplift into Ireland's trade with Israel finds that it is most likely funnelled from Intel's facilities in Israel through Ireland via transfer pricing for tax benefits. There we have it. Just like with the Central Bank's shameful facilitation in the selling of Israeli war bonds, Ireland's complicity in genocide is due to our role as a tax haven for international finance and US multinationals.

The same report provides numerous other examples of this disgusting complicity. One is that Israel's Unit 8200 uses Microsoft's Azure cloud platform, with data stored in the Netherlands and Ireland, for a mass surveillance system that collects recordings of millions of Palestinian phone calls, daily information used to prepare air strikes. This is information held in Ireland in our data centres. UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese said that US multinationals were embedded in an economy of genocide, and so are we.

The Uplift reports says that the benefits of foreign direct investment, FDI, revenue are achieved at the cost of direct complicity in genocide and human rights violations. These are the wages of FDI, the political and moral price Ireland is being asked to pay for its economic prosperity.

A US secretary of state once said that the deaths of half a million children in Iraq was a price worth paying for US objectives. Our Government is making the same genocidal choice. By refusing to implement sanctions on Israel, it is deciding for all of us that the price is worth it. It is selling our souls for US investment. This Bill would put an end to that by imposing comprehensive sanctions on the State of Israel. It is the minimum we should be doing under the Genocide Convention and it should be done now.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Is the Bill being opposed?

Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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We are not opposing it.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Since this is a Private Members' Bill, Second Stage must, under Standing Orders, be taken in Private Members' time.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I move: "That Second Stage be taken in Private Members' time."