Shane Curley (Fianna Fail)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht teacht isteach ar gearrfhógra. Táim buíoch de. I commend Senator Ruane on proposing the amendment to the Order of Business today to enable us to have this debate. I am glad we are talking about this. I wish there were more of us in the room on both sides of the House. I am not pointing fingers; this is serious.

What Israel did last night was smash international law. Not alone did it smash international law relating to protections for boats on international waters, but it prevented food going to people who were starving and medical supplies getting to people who really needed them. It is systematic and deliberate and it is total brutality. That needs to be said.

I often hear people say the European Union is the greatest peace project of all time, that we achieved peace on a continuous basis - until the Russian invasion of Ukraine, perhaps, looking at it a different way. However, at least in the European Union, there has been constant peace since the end of the Second World War. That notion has been undermined by the inaction of the European Union against Israel. In contrast with what it did with Russia after the invasion of Ukraine and what it is doing now, there is hypocrisy at European Union level. I am not blaming our Government. What the European Union is doing is hypocritical. I am very disappointed as a person who is proud to be an EU citizen - I engaged in LYMEC debates and went to the European youth debates in Brussels - that the EU has been so lethargic and there has been so little action.

Irish citizens are in IDF custody as we speak for no justifiable reason and the European Union needs to act now. I commend the Kinvara Palestine Solidarity Group, the Loughrea for Palestine group, the Athenry for Palestine group and Gort Palestine Solidarity Group. They are four local groups in Galway that have kept constant pressure going and kept the flag flying on a constant basis. They are the best of what Galway has to offer and have been consistent in their support and advocacy. I commend them. They have never given up.

We need three things now. We need sanctions straight away. We need education on how we got here in the first place so that, when this is over - I hope it will be soon - we never get here again. Conversations in classrooms all over the world must make sure this is dialled down and this hatred and this brutality never happen again. Politicians around the world need to dial down the rhetoric about military complexes so we are not obsessed with defence spending and arming ourselves to the teeth in order to carry out the level of brutality we are seeing in Palestine on a daily basis. I hope we will see that soon.