Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to share a poem from Dr. Refaat Alareer from Gaza. He was a beautiful young man. He was a teacher of English literature, a translator and a poet who was murdered by Israel last Thursday. He was an individual with dreams as vivid as anyone sitting in this Chamber. His life mattered and he deserves justice as does every family in Gaza. As a tribute, people on Twitter have translated Dr. Refaat Alareer's poem called If I Must Die, which I shall read out:

If I must die

you must live

to tell my story

to sell my things

to buy a piece of cloth

and some strings,

(make it white with a long tail)

so that a child, somewhere in Gaza

while looking heaven in the eye

awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—

and bid no one farewell

not even to his flesh

not even to himself—

sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up

above

and thinks for a moment an angel is there

bringing back love

If I must die

let it bring hope

let it be a tale.When entire families are being extinguished in Gaza, it becomes more difficult for us to calculate the extent of what is being lost. Those families become depersonalised and distant, and the unfolding genocide becomes an abstract body count steadily ticking upwards. This is enabled by the dehumanisation of Palestinians that pervades political and media discourse. Palestinians are not just dehumanised by the genocide and rhetoric of Israeli politicians. They are dehumanised by the suppression of their political speech in Britain and the EU and, might I add, by the hypocrisy of the Government. For example, when the Government offers special temporary protection to Ukrainians and refers the state illegally invading and occupying that country's land to the International Criminal Court but then declines to take the same stand to defend Palestinians, it becomes clear, I believe, who we value and who we do not.

While I welcome the UN General Assembly, and 153 countries, having voted yesterday to call for a ceasefire, and that only ten countries opposed it, and the remarks made by the Tánaiste, I believe this is clearly inadequate given the situation. Calling for a ceasefire is not enough. Given what the Irish public are talking about, and that we have a protest outside Leinster House at 1 p.m. today, as well as protests all over the country with thousands of people marching, we must do more. It is not enough to just call for a ceasefire. We must do more. I plead with the Government to please work to stop the killing of babies and children in Gaza today. Ireland can do more. We did it back in the 1980s with the anti-apartheid campaign. We can do more now. I ask the Government to please hear me today and to hear my pleas to do more, and not just to call for a ceasefire. Go raibh míle maith agat.