Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber and the Civil Engagement Group for its detailed motion. I thank Senator Black for all her advocacy and for continually raising in the House the plight of Palestinians through many years. As Senator Garvey said, this is not just about 7 October and life after that. It is obviously over many years. I also thank Senator Higgins for her work.

There are almost 30,000 dead, another 70,000 or more missing or injured and 50,000 pregnant women with little or no healthcare. We have heard all the shocking stories of Caesarean sections being carried out with no anaesthetic and no access to any dignity, let alone decent healthcare, in giving birth. There are thousands of children in starvation and malnourishment. To be honest, I am not sure words matter anymore. Since 7 October, we have all issued thousands of words appealing to the Israeli Government, pleading with it to immediately cease its war and genocide on the Palestinian people, but it is not listening. The Israeli Government has not been forced to listen. Instead, it has become emboldened. The language of dehumanisation and ethnic cleansing is becoming commonplace in the Knesset. We have seen a conference on the victory of Israel and open talk about the forced migration of Palestinians out of Gaza and the effect of annihilation of Gaza. We are seeing disgusting disinformation, with spokespersons talking about the threat of Hamas being everywhere, which means nowhere, not even hospitals or schools, is sacrosanct or sacred anymore. There have been shocking threats of the annihilation of Gaza. A member of the Israeli Government has referred to 2 million Palestinians in the West Bank as Nazis. The Israeli Government will stop at nothing. We are even seeing the appalling exploitation of those who are currently facing housing shortages in Israel. People who are victim to a housing crisis are being lured into a situation where they are forced to become settlers.

While we are glued to our screens and talking about Gaza, 300 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank between October and December. The UN has talked about incidents of sexual violence by members of the Israel Defense Forces against Palestinian women and children, yet that does not get coverage. If words do not work anymore, we need to send a signal to make Israel listen. We need to talk about financial sanctions against any company that operates in the illegal settlements. That does not just mean pulling the ISIF money out of the companies that are currently operating there. It means actually imposing financial and trade sanctions against these companies. We need financial sanctions against Israeli ministers. The Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has talked about nuking Gaza, sending all Gazans to Ireland and resettling Gaza. He is, in effect, cultivating and stirring up a hatred of Palestinians. The Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Yoel Smotrich, has called 2 million Palestinians in the West Bank Nazis. There are no consequences for any of this.The Irish State needs to be brave and to impose sanctions both on the illegal settlements and on those Ministers who are effectively perpetrating and propagating a war of genocide on the Palestinian people.

The Israeli state earns €20 billion from trading goods and services with the European Union every year. How can the European Union call itself a peace project and still continue to have a free trade agreement with a country that is currently committing genocide? I absolutely support the many calls made for an immediate suspension of the Israel–EU free trade agreement. I welcome the efforts by the Irish Government to date but we have to go further. We have to act unilaterally at this stage because there have been fundamental breaches of the association agreement. We will not achieve anything by waiting for a consensus at European Council level.

I commend the additional funding made available to UNRWA when other countries disgracefully turned their back on the organisation. We need more than words at this stage. Words have failed, so we need to recognise the state of Palestine, progress the occupied territories Bill and unilaterally impose sanctions. It is ironic that the US and France have imposed sanctions on settlers but we know they are not of much use. However, we can impose sanctions and send a message to the rest of the world that we are not content to keep up the false pretence of saying one thing while continuing to trade elsewhere.

The time for words is over. We need to do much more. I thank my colleague in the Civil Engagement Group for tabling this important motion.