Vincent P Martin (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We can all agree on the seemingly obvious point that one should not execute people or children to advance a political aim. Slaughter is slaughter, no matter the flag or cause, and be it visited by any group or people on any other group or people in any name. It poisons the room of the peacemaker. My heart went out to the innocent Israelis attending a concert who were cut down and murdered in such a horrendous way. In condemning such barbaric acts, however, sooner or later we must take the next steps. The next step is to look back at underlying causes. On 7 October, I found it difficult to discuss the underlying causes out of respect for those Israelis who were slaughtered. Sooner or later, however, we must go back and look at the underlying causes in order to advance matters and bring about a resolution.

As the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, will recall, a former Taoiseach once described Northern Ireland as a failed political entity. The part of the world we are discussing is a failed political entity. This House debated at length the findings of Amnesty International’s report in spring 2022. The report stated that Israel’s apartheid system against Palestinians is a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity. In an article he wrote at the time, the eminent lawyer Bill Shipsey stated that without looking at the facts and findings of the Amnesty report, the finding of apartheid against the state of Israel would upset many, and so it did. Sooner or later, however, we must address the underlying causes. To the eternal credit of F.W. de Klerk, very late in the day, before he passed away in November 2022, he retracted and apologised for his earlier statement that apartheid was not a crime against humanity. He found peace with himself by being true to himself. It was extremely late in the day, but it is never too late.

After he sat his leaving certificate, the young Bill Shipsey and his friends went off to Israel and spent a happy summer working on a kibbutz. They worked moving irrigation pipes in extensive cotton fields. Each morning, Mr. Shipsey passed what looked like the ruins of a village on top of a hill above the kibbutz. No explanation was forthcoming to the young Mr. Shipsey at the time but, many years later, he realised what he had lived through that summer. He discovered that the land on which the kibbutz operated had been obtained by Palestinian tenants being driven off it in the 1930s and again in 1948. The abandoned and ruined village was one from which residents had been forcibly removed. Some of the descendants of its former residents now live as refugees in the West Bank. Bill Shipsey concluded that had he known that at the time, things would have been very different and he would have adopted a different approach. He finished the article on a note of hope, observing that justice requires change, compromise and a willingness to recognise wrongs. I would add that it also requires honesty and, at times, raw honesty. A peace based on justice must include a willingness to recognise wrongs. Martin Luther King said: "I do not see how we will ever solve the turbulent problem of race confronting our nation until there is an honest confrontation with it and a willing search for the truth and a willingness to ... [discuss] the truth when we discover it."

The search for truth goes hand in hand with long-term peace and reconciliation. We have seen South Africa put its dark past behind it. There will be no resolution in the Middle East, with its grim past being consigned to history, however, until people are true to themselves in a mature, calm and selfless way, show honest leadership and call things out as they are. This requires dialogue. As dialogue cannot take place when people are slaughtering each other, there must to be a pause - it can be a without prejudice pause - and it will then be possible for dialogue to take place.

In the meantime, fundamental rights, such as opening up the humanitarian aid corridors and allowing water to flow - things that any right-thinking people would accept - must be observed. Water is vital for life. Electricity and other energy supplies must be provided. There is a need to realise where we are in this.

America has a significant role to play. I know Ireland is good friends with America, and I am thankful it is not Donald Trump with whom we are dealing. I wish to be constructive, however, and state that President Biden is falling short in this context. He is not perceived as an honest broker. I say that as a person who admires President Biden. I am worried that unless this is resolved, there will be a contagion effect. Unless we get rid of this idea of an eye for an eye, this conflict could have devastating consequences.

The Minister of State is a member of Fianna Fáil, the republican party, and he is a constitutional republican. I know he would like to see a united Ireland by peaceful means. That goal, although it does not seem likely to happen any day soon, is on much safer territory today simply because of the silencing of the bombs and guns. That allows some generations to slowly heal. We have a peace, albeit a precious one, and I am not sure yet whether we are sharing our mutual traditions. We are tolerating each other, however, and are moving in the right direction. Until there is a silencing of the barbaric and murderous campaign, we will not get anywhere in this crisis.