Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is good to have the Leas-Chathaoirleach in the Chair. It is an issue that has been close to his heart in the past. I welcome the Minister of State and congratulate the Civil Engagement Group for its passion and for this comprehensive motion, which is a roadmap for what can, should and must be done. I commend all speakers so far this evening. It is great we can send a unified message on this issue to the Government. That is what the Minister of State is getting this evening and that is important.

The difficulty is you run out of words to describe what we are seeing. The statistics are awful: 28,000 Palestinian civilians, at least, murdered, including 70% women and children. Of course, the statistics do not really do it. I am thinking of the images I have seen in the past couple of days. I will bring three to the Minister of State's attention. The first is the young couple married in the rubble about a week ago, and then they were blown up and murdered three days after their wedding. Then there are the images of Palestinians trying to get relief from food trucks and being gunned down by the IDF, literally murdered. Then there is the video the IDF made afterwards. We know people are starving in Gaza so the IDF troops made a video of themselves enjoying a feast and showing off all the food they had to the Palestinians they are currently starving to death. It is beyond horror. I have never seen anything like it in my lifetime.

We need a ceasefire and there is a unified call from here this evening for an immediate ceasefire. There are two main obstacles to that: the first is the far right, disgusting, apartheid Government in Israel; equally, we must be clear, and it has been made clear by others, about the US's responsibility in this regard. It voted against a call for an immediate ceasefire yesterday for the third time. It begs the question: have they not seen enough people die yet? What will it take for them to do the right thing? Any of us from any party travelling to the US next month has to make that abundantly clear in the starkest terms. This is something fundamentally wrong which must change. We must make that call as clearly and strongly as we can.

The next issue I want to talk about is my experience in Europe on this issue. I am lucky enough to be a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and I watched first hand as a strong call for an immediate ceasefire was undermined. I am just being honest and do not want to divide the House, but we saw members of the Renew group, ALDE and almost all members of the EPP align with the far right in Europe's human rights assembly to undermine the call for a ceasefire. I want to make it clear the Irish delegation did not take part in that. It was a shameful thing to see.

Others have mentioned Ursula von der Leyen. She gave cover for the genocide that is happening. She gave unqualified support to Netanyahu to carry out what he is doing at a pivotal time when Israel was escalating its action. I make no apologies for calling on the Fine Gael MEPs currently endorsing von der Leyen for a second term to change their minds. How on earth can you endorse someone who gave cover for genocide? I call on anyone interested in running for Europe and our existing MEPs to be clear on that. There should be no equivocation in relation to her disgraceful role in what has happened.

Above all, I echo Senator Higgins's call for the Government to be brave. I commend the actions it has taken, particularly to support UNWRA and the clear words we have heard, but the people tuning in tonight want to hear a message that we will go beyond words and take actions. Those actions include passing the occupied territories Bill and the divestment Bill. I expect that Bill will be back in the Dáil either next week or the week after and there will be no room for equivocation. The Government must support the Bill because it is within its power to do so.

There are many references in this excellent motion to the word "apartheid". I invite the Minister of State to ensure his Government comes off the fence on this term. It does not matter whether I think Israel is an apartheid state; it matters that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say it is an apartheid state. The UN Special Rapporteur recognises it is an apartheid state. More than 450 separate NGOs recognise Israel is an apartheid state. I ask the Minister of State to please not duck this issue in his response and to acknowledge that Israel is an apartheid state, as all of those human rights bodies have done. It is important. Language matters. We need to hear that from the Minister of State this evening and we need the actions we can take to be taken. People want to see leadership. Unfortunately, we will not see it at EU level and that means we need a coalition of the willing. We need to see these actions taken. I want to hear the Minister of State say he will do so.It was in Fianna Fáil's manifesto and the Green Party's manifesto to endorse the occupied territories Bill. Surely Fine Gael is no longer opposed to that point of view? Let us see action. The people of Ireland expect action.

My last point is this. I cannot help but see the contrast with the treatment meted out to Russia - correctly, with regard to its illegal invasion of Ukraine - including the 13 rounds of sanctions against them and the summoning of their ambassador. Why have we not summoned the Israeli ambassador? How many more people have to die before the Government does that? I believe she should be expelled and if the Government does not agree with that, at least, for God's sake, summon her. If the Government did it to the Russian ambassador yesterday, why has it waited this long to do it to the Israeli ambassador?

I have taken too much time, a Leas-Chathaoirligh, and I appreciate that. I acknowledge that we all agree on much this evening but the people watching tonight want to see action from this Government and this motion sets out those actions. I ask the Minister of State to ensure that those actions are taken and followed up. We need to do better.