Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and acknowledge the fact the Chair of the foreign affairs committee, Deputy Lahart, has been at most of this debate. As I serve on that committee, it is good that he is taking the matter so seriously. I acknowledge the Tánaiste as a politician who, from day one, has been strong on this issue and is not a newcomer to it.

This is a story of depravity. It is a story of inhuman activity. It is unquestionably genocide, with 55,000 dead by 14 May last. It is complicity in famine with the 80-day blockade on aid. It is so bad that future generations will, open-mouthed and aghast, ask us where we stood and what did we do. It involves the demolition of homes, hospitals, schools and infrastructure and the complete displacement of people. As I mention displacement, sadly, we have the prospect, and it was referenced earlier, of 22 new settlements in the West Bank, which is a horror that could slip through very handily in the midst of this and not be noticed. This is an assault on women and children predominantly, which is an aspect that needs to be remembered. Women and children are at the forefront of suffering here, and no more than that extraordinary case of the doctor who lost her nine children.

It is shocking that we have the looting and the food sitting on the trains. The humanitarian aid is in trucks, including Irish aid, and not getting in. The question arises as to what we do. At this point it would be churlish not to acknowledge the extraordinary pioneering work of our good colleague Senator Francis Black in this area over a number of years. We must acknowledge that. We should salute her in that. We should and we are now implementing the occupied territories Bill. We should not go into recess this summer until that is implemented. There has been a late conversion by such countries as England, and France and Germany within the EU. We should be at the forefront of keeping the momentum to that late conversion. We should be out there in the EU pushing for that to continue. We should be strongly against the arms going into Israel. An embargo on arms has to take place at this stage. There is no equivocation on that, no counterargument. There cannot be, given what is happening there. We need to be taking these actions immediately. When the Minister of State responds, and I know he is active on these issues, he will state clearly that we are going to act on all these fronts. It is a multifaceted approach. It is the occupied territories Bill, the embargo on arms, a call for the ceasefire, getting the aid in, supporting the new EU initiatives and pushing for more.There is self-interest here. This is a tragic reality, and we would be horrified if it happens, but we are giving rise to and creating the conditions for a new generation of suicide bombers. Let us have no illusions about a 15- or 16-year-old child who sees their family obliterated, their home obliterated and their people displaced. If that child is intelligent and bright he or she could potentially and tragically become a suicide bomber. It is the wrong response but it is the response we will have. Relations of ours, generations back or down, will walk along Trafalgar Square or the Champs-Élysées, or in Dublin or Germany or wherever, and unfortunately may be victims. This is coming and there is a self-interest here. That is not the reason to do it but it is a by-product we are going to have.

Let us get one misnomer out of the way. In taking strong action, and we have to take strong action, there is not a shred of antisemitism in this. The people who are horrified by Gaza today and the proposed 22 new settlements in the West Bank are similarly horrified by antisemitism and horrified by the events of 7 October.

The last thing I would say is on the excellent speech by Senator McDowell. The Senator is right. Israel did create these conditions over a number of years. It did feed into this situation with settlements and with support of Hamas, and unfortunately this is the tragic outcome. Action is needed now. I look forward to the Minister of State outlining a programme of actions here.