Tom Clonan (Independent)

I welcome our friends from Slovenia. I wish to speak about the issue of children in Gaza dying of thirst. This is an appalling apocalyptic notion to think that children are dying of thirst, when literally 2 km or 3 km away, there are supermarkets in Israel full of food, water and energy drinks. There is no absence of water for Gaza. There is no absence of food. What there is is a desire and a willingness on the part of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Forces to murder and carry out an act of genocide by way of forced starvation. This is not famine; it is forced starvation. I have said this before and I will say it again: the Israel Defense Forces and Netanyahu's cabinet is made up of Christians, Muslims, Druze, Bedouin Arabs and Shia and Sunni Muslims. Any criticism of the IDF or Netanyahu is not a criticism of Judaism or Jews; it is a criticism of war crimes, a war criminal and genocide.

It is has been made aware to us in the media that the US Embassy now requires all Irish citizens applying for a visa to the United States to provide all of their social media identities for the past five years and to make all of their settings public. The views and opinions of young people like those in the Visitors Gallery and views of people like myself will be audited to establish whether or not they run contrary to US foreign policy, such as it is, because, to quote the President Trump, "They don't know what the fuck they're doing." It is an on the record quote. It has been made clear-----