David Norris (Independent)

This week one of my colleagues objected to the use of language by a Member on the Government side of the House because he used the word "slaughter" regarding the situation in Israel. I maintained it was a matter of proportion and I still do. I know something about the use of language and when 125 people, mainly civilians and including four children, are killed by the armed forces of a legitimate government as a matter of policy and in order, according to one Israeli Minister, to send a message to Hamas, it is slaughter and a massacre. That is the appropriate language. It is regrettable that my colleague and friend said that this type of debate provokes unreasonable passions and anti-Israeli feeling "which is ingrained in the minds of some Members of this House".

It is not ingrained in my mind. I am the only person in this House who has lived in Israel for substantial periods over the last 30 years. I know the country very well and I have always supported its right to exist. However, I am very concerned when an Israeli Minister uses the word shoah because I know what the word means to the Israelis and the Jews. People like myself are attacked when we use words such as apartheid to describe the fact that certain roads are reserved for Jewish citizens of Israel and people, even Israeli citizens, can be taken to court and jailed for taking Palestinians on them. That is apartheid. Ghettos exist and if an Israeli Minister can use the word shoah, I will use the word apartheid.

Amnesty International, Trócaire and Oxfam have combined to issue a statement today about the blockade by Israel. They say the conditions in Gaza are the worst in 40 years and that they constitute collective punishment. That is a war crime under the terms of the Geneva Conventions. Yesterday, I received a communication from the chairman of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, RIAI, housing committee who is on a visit to Israel and Palestine and is totally neutral. He went with some Palestinian people to make a protest at the wall, as he had gone to other events with Israelis. He said:

The protest against the wall was festive and accompanied by music.... At the security fence a symbolic coffin was put in place and the man who had carried it turned to leave at which point, and without any provocation whatsoever, [this occurred inside Palestine] the Israeli Army who were observing the protest opened fire hitting the man and subsequently hitting several other people with some form of plastic bullet, the injured people were taken away by ambulances. The army then advanced through a fence in front of the wall and from concealment in fields to the west (I think) of the village road, all the time firing plastic bullets, and tear gas as they advanced. We were shocked and terrified ..... At least two live rounds appear to have been fired. The army continued firing and advancing on us....

That is appalling. They were then allowed to go back to their buses but this was an unprovoked attack by the Israeli army, with rubber bullets and live ammunition, on a peaceful demonstration within the state of Palestine. The reason I and others raise these issues is that they involve the official army of the state against unarmed civilians. We must use this type of language because the people in Palestine and Gaza are defenceless.

I am not attacking the people of Israel, whom I love and among whom I lived for many years. The restaurant we regularly went to for celebrations, Savion, at the triangle near the president's house——