Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will use my time to speak on the barbaric incidents happening every day in Palestine. I have not spoken before now because I have been too upset to keep it together. I will try to keep it together for the next three minutes. We had a great briefing yesterday, organised by Senator Black and Deputy Costello. We heard first-hand stories from people in Palestine and from Israeli Jews. There is no debate here; what is happening at the moment is absolutely and completely illegal, barbaric and dehumanising. I disassociate myself completely from Ursula von der Leyen's comments. They do not represent me, as a national politician, and I am sure they do not represent the many people in our Government who have been very strong in asking for a ceasefire. I do not know who she thinks she is representing in just supporting Israel but I will be very clear that I do not agree with her and I call on her to retract her statements because she is completely ignoring what is happening to the Palestinian people.

We have had 33 days of consistent bombardment. More than 6,000 children are dead. More children have been killed in Palestine in the past 33 days than were killed in the entire world in the past three years. That is worth crying over and I do not apologise for doing so. It is a disgrace. Some 120 schools, 32 health centres and five hospitals have been bombed, 56 journalists and 180 doctors and nurses have been killed and 1,010 entire family units have been wiped out. Families of between 30 and 50 members have been completely erased from Palestine forever. Some 2,300 people are still under the rubble and have yet to be found. It is said that another child is killed every four to seven minutes. By the time two of us have finished speaking this morning, two more children will have been killed in Palestine.

I do not know what else I can do other than use my platform, as a national politician, to demand an immediate ceasefire. We have to call out President Joe Biden and the American Government for supporting Israel. They have to see sense on this complete insanity. It is a total genocide. We never expected something so barbaric to happen again after the Second World War and yet here we are. Although we are in modern times and everyone can see it on their phones, it is still continuing. We need to call for an immediate ceasefire. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, the Red Cross and all of the first aid organisations are saying that 16,000 trucks are needed. So far, only 630 trucks have been allowed to come in, none of which has carried fuel, which is why hospitals are closing.

We need a two-state solution. That has always been the case. To be very clear, what Hamas did was absolutely insane and barbaric. We need to have an intelligent debate about this. People cannot be accused of supporting Hamas just because they call out what Israel is now doing every day. The first day or two of revenge for what Hamas did to the Israelis could nearly be justified but this continuing bombardment and killing of innocent people is completely wrong. There is no debate about that. It is always wrong to keep people as hostages but this is just murder and it has to stop.