Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I thank the Cathaoirleach for organising this debate. However, I am disappointed that the Tánaiste is not here as I intended to address my contribution to him. We have not had statements on the situation in Palestine for some time and it has become so much graver in the intervening months. Coincidentally, the Civil Engagement Group agreed to use our Private Members' time tomorrow to submit and debate a motion on the situation in Palestine. I am hopeful that these back-to-back debates will give Senators the opportunity to put their views on the record. The huge numbers of people protesting, contacting their public representatives and raising funds and awareness demonstrates the depth of public feeling on this issue and the desire for a stronger response from Government.

The past four and a half months have been an absolute nightmare. Every day there is a new horror. The scale of the destruction can be quantified but it is impossible to comprehend. Children are starving to death right now. The WHO has found that there is an exponential increase in the transmission of infectious diseases among these young, starving children. Child mortality could increase rapidly if the situation does not change immediately. This is how famine works. It is deliberate. People are enduring Caesarian sections and amputations without anaesthesia right now. Most hospitals have ceased to function. Hospitals have been bombed, invaded by Israeli soldiers and medical staff and patients have been abducted, tortured and murdered. Nowhere in Gaza is safe. An American doctor who recently returned from working at a hospital in Gaza spoke about how he saw several small children on a single day brought to the hospital, having been shot in the head by Israeli snipers. None of them survived. This is not a war. It is a murderous rampage by the trained killers of a rogue state. It is the ultimate expression of impunity.

I want to give credit where it is due. The joint Spanish-Irish statement calling for a review of the EU-Israel association agreement is an important, albeit incomplete, step. A review is unnecessary. The evidence on social media and in the International Court of Justice proceedings clearly shows Israeli soldiers documenting their war crimes for public consumption. Israeli political leaders are making unequivocal statements about their genocidal intentions. The televised events speak for themselves, rendering a review redundant. We should insist on immediately initiating the process of suspending the agreement by invoking Article 82.

I commend the Tánaiste on the extra €20 million in funding for UNRWA. It is a meaningful expression of confidence in an essential aid organisation during a time of unprecedented catastrophe. I also applaud him for being one of the few western political leaders willing to call out the baseless Israeli smear campaign against UNRWA. This campaign is as central to Israel’s assault on all Palestinian life in Gaza as the aerial bombardment of civilian infrastructure and its imposition of starvation conditions. It is in clear violation of the ICJ's interim measures and it is despicable that many western governments have gone along with it.

I feel compelled to address certain misleading and disingenuous statements I have heard from the Government since the beginning of the recent conflict in Gaza. Those of us in opposition have appeared weekly in both Chambers pleading with the Government to live up to its stated commitment to universal human rights and the equal application of international law. All efforts to urge the Government to implement substantial measures and take tangible action have not been successful, unfortunately. Thankfully, there is a consensus regarding Palestine's right to self-determination within these Houses but there is a divergence between those of us advocating for concrete steps to actualise that right and those who have refrained from action and yielded to the influence of US and EU leaders who are providing financial support, weaponry and diplomatic backing for Israel's actions in Gaza. It is clear that the Tánaiste possesses a deep understanding of this division. He has crossed the Parliament floor and under his leadership, Fianna Fáil contested the 2020 general election on a manifesto pledging to enact the Control of Economic Activities (Occupied Territories) Bill. In 2018, the then Government rejected my legislation using the flimsy pretext of confidential legal advice. This advice was leaked and was comprehensively refuted by several eminent lawyers. The Tánaiste was sufficiently convinced of the legality and necessity of the Bill to include it in his party's election manifesto, but now that Fianna Fáil has returned to government, the position has changed. Unfortunately, Palestinians and their allies are accustomed to broken promises. Local authorities all over this country are passing motions of solidarity with Palestine. Many of those motions include support for the enactment of the Control of Economic Activities (Occupied Territories) Bill and have received support from councillors belonging to coalition parties. The grassroots are being much more faithful to the promises made to the electorate then the Tánaiste has been.The international community is united behind a two-state solution but Israel has done everything in its power to make that outcome impossible. It refuses to recognise the legitimacy of the ICJ which is currently ruling on the legality of its 56-year long occupation. Israel has expanded illegal settlement construction since the Oslo Accords, making daily life in the West Bank impossible for indigenous Palestinians. There are four times more settlers in the West Bank than there were before the Oslo Accords and those settlers receive state subsidies and are defended by the IDF even when they murder, pillage and steal from Palestinians, driving them off the land. I know the Tánaiste knows this. The question is what the Irish Government is going to do about it.

I keep hearing from Government figures that Ireland’s response to the crisis in Gaza has been strong. Our response fares well when compared to countries such as Germany, the UK and the US, which are actively complicit in the genocide through arms sales to Israel. However, we should not be comparing ourselves to the colonial powers arming a rogue state. We should reckon with the anti-racist, anti-colonial responsibility that our history imbues in us. When Ireland took up its seat at the UN in 1955 we distinguished ourselves from the competing geopolitical blocs through our firm independence and our consistent support for decolonisation, disarmament and peacebuilding. Our diplomacy reflected our values. We should be asking how we compare to countries such as South Africa which are being brave and steadfastly standing with their Palestinian brothers and sisters. It is inspiring to see the people who defeated apartheid in their own country coming to the aid of the Palestinians who are subjected to Israeli apartheid. South Africa understands that its liberation creates an ongoing moral responsibility to the oppressed people of this world. We have forgotten that but its not too late to correct our course. The people of Palestine, who are enduring unimaginable torture, deprivation and cruelty, need more than empty words of consolation. They need action. They need real tangible solidarity; nothing else will do.