Gerard Craughwell (Independent)

Today is the first opportunity I have had to stand in solidarity with the Bosnia-Herzegovina Association of Ireland to commemorate the genocide at Srebrenica, the 30th anniversary of which passed on 29 June.

In making that statement, I want to recognise what has become for me the normalisation of the war in Ukraine. Ukraine has slipped down the agenda and is not seen as the genocide that Gaza is, yet there is a significant level of destruction of public buildings in Ukraine. The difference is that in Ukraine the destruction is distributed over a wide geographic area, whereas in Gaza it is concentrated in a central area. In the wars going on in this world at the moment, genocide is being accepted by everybody.

Yesterday, it was sickening to watch Donald Trump warmly welcome a war criminal into the White House, and wine him and dine him and look after him. There is nothing between Putin and Netanyahu. The two of them are committing war crimes daily. Due to the horrific scenes we get from Gaza, Ukraine has dropped off the agenda and what is happening there has become normalised. I ask colleagues to look to Ukraine. It does not matter where people are being murdered. They are being murdered and we should speak out and speak against what is happening and those who would commit such horrendous crimes. I cannot imagine what it must be like to go to bed at night in Kyiv, not knowing if a rocket is going to come through the window of your accommodation block. That was the cry the Israelis had about the Palestinians, that they were firing rockets indiscriminately, and then they went and flattened the place. The same is happening in Ukraine and we need to put that back on the map.