David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to express my gratitude to the Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann, to the Minister who, as a Laois man, I congratulate on his appointment, and to Senator Averil Power for marshalling the forces on this side to respond to my request for a recall of Seanad Éireann.

People ask: "What for? What can Seanad Éireann do?" The answer in the international context is "Nothing", because nobody will pay that much attention to what Ireland does. I remember being in Palestine some years ago in an area that was heavily controlled by the Israelis, and I said to my Palestinian hosts, "You know there is nothing I can do, I will have no effect", and they said, "But at least you will be a witness, you will be a record to our suffering, and we will not go unnoticed". It is for that reason I called for the recall of the Seanad.

I am very sad. I am not anti-Israeli; I am not anti-Semitic. I supported the State of Israel. However, in the 40 years that I have known the State of Israel and sometimes had a home there, I have seen it completely change. It changed from a left wing, socially directed country to an extreme right-wing regime that is behaving in the most criminal fashion, defying the world and unscrupulously using the Holocaust to justify what they are doing. It is time that rag was torn away from them.

Israel is afraid of Palestinian unity. That is what all of this is about. It has nothing to do with the appalling murder of those three Israeli kids. The Israeli police knew that Hamas had nothing to do with it before this war started. Israel created Hamas in order to split Fatah, so it is responsible for Hamas. I had this confirmed at the highest level in the foreign ministry in Jerusalem some years ago. It is astonishing to me that those in the West prate about democracy, yet every time an Islamic government crops up around the Mediterranean, they refuse to deal with it, they subvert it and they destroy it. Where is the democracy in that? We may not like it. They may be antagonistic. My Jewish friends and Israeli friends sometimes say to me, "How would you fare, as a gay man, in any of these?" I know exactly how I would fare, but it does not mean it is correct to deny people the right to choose their own government. What self-respecting or sane people would allow their enemies to choose their government for them? Can anyone imagine it happening in this country? I certainly cannot.

America has a shameful role to play in this. Israel could not get away with these disgraceful acts of international piracy and brigandage if it was not for the protecting shadow of the United States of America. I condemn President Obama for his utter inaction. I have to say I was a bit taken aback when I saw Ukraine had been added to the statements as it is irrelevant. It is a bit of "whataboutery". What about Syria? What about the Congo? What about Iraq? What about everything? However, the one thing it does is to show the extraordinary discrepancy here. At the instructions of the Americans we are prepared to boycott, go after the Russian banks and do this, that and the other. What do we do about Israel? We do not even mark a protest note with our vote at the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

That is shameful - absolutely shameful. I would have interjected that it had been better to be one country in the right than be with all the rest of them in the wrong.

There are no words to describe what happened yesterday in Jebalyia where there were six attacks on schools. They are deliberate, I have no doubt, because 3,300 people were sheltered there. They had been directed there by Israel. The co-ordinates were given 17 times. How could anybody claim that they did not know what they were doing? Israel's policy is shoot first and weep afterwards saying, "Oh, did we hit children? What a terrible tragedy". Nobody believes Israel anymore. It is doing this to exert pressure on Hamas. It will not resolve this problem until, as we did in this country, it involves both of the participants.