Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 22 Nov 2023

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes:

— that long before the current horrific escalation of violence by Israel in Gaza and increasingly in the West Bank, multiple human rights organisations had issued damning reports stating that Israel was guilty of multiple breaches of international law and crimes against humanity in their treatment of Palestinians;

— in that regard, that last year's Amnesty International report entitled "Israel's Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity", indicted Israel for;

— the crime against humanity of apartheid as defined by the Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute;

— operating a racist and cruel system of apartheid against the Palestinian people both within the state of Israel, within the occupied Palestinian Territories, in Gaza and against the millions of Palestinians exiled in the Palestinian diaspora, who are denied their most basic rights and freedoms;

— deliberately denying Palestinians their basic rights and freedoms, including draconian movement restrictions in the Occupied Palestine Territories (OPT), systematic home demolitions, land seizures and annexation of Palestinian territory, including in East Jerusalem;

— its 16 year-long blockade on Gaza, which leaves the area in a "state of perpetual humanitarian crisis" and amounts to a "collective punishment of Gaza's civilian population";

— chronic discriminatory underinvestment in Palestinian communities in Israel;

— the denial of the right to return of millions of Palestinian refugees as guaranteed by international law;

— the forcible transfer and expulsion of Palestinians from Israel and the OPT;

— the "widespread" and "systematic" use of administrative detention to imprison thousands of Palestinians, including children;

— "decades" of torture and ill treatment of Palestinian detainees, including children;

— the "systematic, unlawful and arbitrary" killing of Palestinians "outside the context of armed conflict"; and

— treatment of Palestinians as an inferior racial group who are defined by their non-Jewish, Arab status, and this racial discrimination is cemented

in laws which affect Palestinians across Israel and the OPT;

further notes that the report:

— follows a 2021 report from Human Rights Watch entitled "A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution",

which also indicts Israel for apartheid and many other crimes;

— includes the following condemnation of the international community's inaction "for over seven decades, the international community has stood by as Israel has been given free rein to dispossess, segregate, control, oppress and dominate Palestinians"; and

— states that "the international community has contributed to undermining the international legal order and has emboldened Israel to continue perpetrating crimes with impunity" and accuses some states of having "actively supported Israel's violations by supplying it with the arms, equipment and other tools to perpetrate crimes under international law and by providing diplomatic cover, including at the United Nations Security Council to shield it from accountability" and "by doing so, they have completely failed the Palestinian people and have only exacerbated Palestinians' lived experience as people with lesser rights and inferior status to Jewish Israelis";

furthermore notes:

— that the Gaza Health Ministry has stated that more than 11,000 people have been killed by the Israeli attacks carried out since 7th October, that's one in every 200 Gazans killed in 6 weeks, and close to half of those were children;

— that according to the World Health Organization, 160 children are being killed every day in Gaza, according to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, 180 women are giving birth in Gaza every day without medical care, and according to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders), the healthcare system in Gaza has collapsed and children are enduring operations such as amputations without anaesthetic;

— the displacement of over one million people from Gaza under threat of deliberate and premeditated military assault that bears all the hallmarks of a campaign of ethnic cleansing;

— that attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank against Palestinians have increased and at least 178 Palestinians have been killed, including 45 children;

— that at least 1,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the West Bank, including 424 children;

— that more than 2,200 Palestinians in the West Bank have been detained, including 24 journalists;

— that the number of Palestinians held in administrative detention increased from 1,319 to 2,070 between 1st October and 1st November;

— that the Government has repeatedly called for a humanitarian ceasefire and stated that Israel's actions amount to a "war on children";

— Israel's murderous, inhumane and brutal actions in Gaza and, increasingly in the West Bank, bear all the hallmarks of an intent to commit genocide, as set out in the Genocide Convention, and that under that Convention Ireland has a legal obligation to prevent genocide; and

— the Israeli Ambassador's repeated attempts to justify the atrocities being carried out by the Israeli state and the growing public demand for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador;

also notes that:

— Israel is central to the projection of United States (US) geopolitical and military power in the Middle East, and in 1986 US President Joe Biden said of Israel "It's the best $3 billion investment we make. Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region";

— the US has given Israel more military assistance than any other country since World War II, providing aid worth more than $158 billion;

— Israel's illegal, violent occupation of Palestine, and current destruction and ethnic cleansing of Gaza, are overwhelmingly dependent on funding and weapons from the US, and the US has consistently refused to call for a ceasefire and has vetoed and voted against UN resolutions calling for a ceasefire;

— almost all US funding to Israel at present is in the form of military funding, with the US giving Israel $3.8 billion per year in military assistance under a 10-year plan that began in 2016, and the Biden administration now plans to provide a further $14.5 billion in military funding to Israel;

— since October, the US has deployed an aircraft carrier, fighter jets, a nuclear-powered submarine capable of carrying cruise missiles, three ballistic missile defence ships, and drones in the Middle East region;

— European Union (EU) member states have provided military equipment to Israel's occupation forces for decades, with close to 30 per cent of Israeli weapons coming from Germany and Italy, and EU arms exports to Israel from 2011-2020 worth €4.1 billion;

— the use of Shannon Airport by the US military for over two decades, for their wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East, has undermined Irish neutrality;

— Article 28.3.1° of the Constitution of Ireland states that "War shall not be declared and the State shall not participate in any war save with the assent of Dáil Éireann", but this has been repeatedly and consistently undermined by giving the US military permission to use Shannon Airport to provide direct support for ground offensives and bombing campaigns, making the State complicit in the deaths and displacement of millions of people;

— Shannon Airport is effectively a forward operating base for the US military, used to support their operations in the Middle East, with approximately three million US troops and their weapons, and US Air Force/Navy cargo planes passing through Shannon Airport since 2002, and over 51,000 US military personnel have passed through Shannon Airport in 2023 to mid-November;

— no inspections have taken place to establish if US military aircraft landing in Shannon meet the State's conditions of such military aircraft being unarmed, and carry no arms, ammunition or explosives, are not engaged in intelligence gathering, and do not form part of a military operation or exercise; and

— no inspections of US military aircraft in Shannon Airport have taken place to establish if weapons are being transported to Israel since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in October;

calls on the Government to endorse the findings and the recommendations of the Amnesty International report entitled "Israel's Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity", including, but not limited to, the following:

— publicly recognise that international crimes against humanity, including the crime of apartheid, as defined in the Rome Statute and Apartheid Convention, are being committed by Israel against Palestinians in Israel and the OPT;

— recognise the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to homes where they or their families once lived in Israel or the OPT, and to receive restitution and compensation and other effective remedies for the loss of their land and property;

— publicly support and advocate for targeted sanctions against Israeli officials most responsible for the system and crime of apartheid;

— demand that Israel immediately cease all settlement activity as a first step to dismantling all Israeli settlements and related infrastructure in the West Bank;

— demand that Israel immediately lift the siege of Gaza and immediately restore food, water, electricity, and medical supplies, and remove all other forms of arbitrary restrictions of movement of people and goods that result in collective punishment; and

— publicly advocate that the EU ensures it is not supporting or rendering aid or assistance to the system of apartheid; and

also calls on the Government to:

— close Shannon Airport to the US military immediately, by banning US military and US military contracted aircraft, including troop carriers, from landing at the airport, and provide a guarantee to Shannon Airport workers that there will be no redundancies and all jobs will be protected;

— support and advocate a comprehensive international arms embargo on the state of Israel, such as those currently imposed on at least eight other states;

— unilaterally act to end the bi-lateral trade in arms, military equipment and technology, surveillance and "dual use" technology between Ireland and Israel;

— unilaterally, impose targeted economic, financial, political and diplomatic sanctions on Benjamin Netanyahu and all Israeli government Ministers, ambassadors, officials and military personnel who are involved in any of the following:

— supporting, promoting or assisting Israel's apartheid system and policies;

— the systematic, unlawful or arbitrary killing of Palestinians, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians;

— the seizure or destruction of Palestinian land or property;

— violations of human rights or international law;

— the system of administrative detention; or are in anyway involved in supporting, promoting or assisting current Israeli actions in Gaza, the West Bank or Israel that are likely to involve war-crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide as defined in the Rome Statute or Apartheid Convention;

— immediately undertake an assessment as to whether there is a serious risk that a genocide is being committed or will be committed by Israel, in line with the State's obligation to prevent genocide under the Genocide Convention and to employ all means reasonably available to the State to prevent genocide in Gaza, including utilising all avenues available and all links with the EU, to sanction Israel so as to prevent the commission of genocide;

— publicly endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and its goals, and in this regard announce a review of State procurement policies; and

— impose other sanctions that would place meaningful pressure on the Israeli Government to halt their current assault on Gaza and to impede their ability to continue this assault.

Everybody is breathing some sigh of relief due to the very temporary respite that will now be given to the people of Gaza after the massacre that has been inflicted on them by Israel over the past number of weeks. I stress that it makes the Government adopting the proposals in this motion even more urgent and important because Israel has made absolutely clear that it intends to resume the slaughter of people in Gaza as soon as this truce expires in four days or so.

Our motion contains a whole number of calls. I strongly refer the Tánaiste to the question of genocide in the motion and the obligations the Irish Government has under the genocide convention, as have all 153 signatories to that convention, to do everything in its power - absolutely everything it can - and to use all reasonable means available to it to prevent the commission of genocide and to act against anybody complicit in genocide or guilty of inciting genocide. That is what we are looking at when we look at the slaughter and massacre that Israel has pursued against the people of Gaza over the past five weeks. It is not just us who are saying that. Academics, experts and people who are knowledgeable about international law and human rights have said that what Israel has done in Gaza over the past four or five weeks fits all of the definitions of genocide as set out in the genocide convention. What genocide means is:

any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

We have had Professor William Schabas, a world-renowned expert in the area of genocide from the University of Galway, has said that Israel's actions fit the definition of genocide. Dr. Raz Segal, an Israeli historian and also one of the world's most renowned experts in the area of genocide and the Holocaust, has also spoken. Mr. Craig Mokhiber from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights resigned on 28 October precisely on the ground that the United Nations had failed to fulfil its obligation under the genocide convention to act against what he believes were genocidal actions and genocidal intent by Israel in its slaughter and massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.

It was clear yesterday that the Taoiseach did not even understand the difference between the question of referring to the International Criminal Court, ICC, or not referring to it, and the genocide convention. This is not a matter of whether we feel like it or it is Government policy to refer or not to refer to the International Criminal Court. All contracting parties to the genocide convention have an obligation to prevent, and to use all reasonable means to prevent, a genocide.

It is not just that Israel has killed - slaughtered - 14,000 people, including 6,000 children, displaced 1.7 million people and, in effect, ethnically cleansed them under a reign of terror, destroyed 275,000 Palestinian homes, and cut off water, electricity, food and health supplies to a population of 2.2 million, which is an entire population. Government officials, military commanders and prominent people in the Israeli regime have made clear their genocidal intent, and all of the experts in the area of genocide have said this is hard evidence of genocidal intent, by warning they would cut off food and electricity, by referring to Palestinians as "animals", by talking about inflicting a new Nakba, a new catastrophe, on the Palestinians, and by talking about things such as erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth. I could go on.

There is an urgency for the Government to act to prevent that horror, that slaughter and that intention to commit genocide before this truce expires. Otherwise, we will have, and I would say we have, blood on our hands for our shameful failure to stop this slaughter to date. I am appealing to the Government to take the action that is in its power, as required under the convention, to impose sanctions on Israel and all of its ministers, ambassadors and representatives, and take all other actions and sanctions necessary to prevent Israel committing and resuming the genocidal assault on Gaza that has caused such horrific, savage, barbaric death and destruction over the past five weeks.

Last night, the South African Parliament passed a motion by a large majority to cut all diplomatic ties with Israel and to expel the Israeli ambassador from South Africa. The Dáil should have done that last week. We have another chance to do it this evening and we should take that chance. Instead of doing that last week, what did the Government do? It mobilised and whipped its TDs to vote it down but not just that. What did the Tánaiste, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and leader of Fianna Fáil do? After hosting the Israeli ambassador at the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis, the Tánaiste went on a trip to Israel supposedly representing the people of this country. He participated in a propaganda tour organised by the Israeli state and designed to justify the genocide being inflicted on the people of Gaza. Did the Tánaiste, when he was in the region, visit Gaza where more than 13,000 people have been killed, almost 6,000 children have been killed and more than one in 200 residents have been killed? No, he did not.

I will be interested in hearing the Tánaiste explain why he did not visit Gaza. It is for one of two reasons. One is that he did not attempt to visit, that he thought it was appropriate to visit Israel to see the impact of Hamas rockets and to point at a ceiling, but not appropriate to go and witness the destruction of hospitals, apartment blocks and refugee camps in Gaza. The other reason is that he did attempt to visit and Israel said "No" but he had nothing to say publicly about that. I will be very interested in finding out which of those reasons it is.

The Tánaiste's trip to Israel was a disgrace. It was absolutely shameful to participate in such a propaganda tour while the assault on Gaza is ongoing. Look at the Tweets that were put out by him, and compare and contrast. Meeting with the Palestinian Authority, he tweeted "I expressed my sympathy to the Palestinian people over civilian deaths in Gaza." There was no mention of who caused those civilian deaths or who is responsible for them whereas, when meeting with people in Israel, he tweeted "I unreservedly condemn the brutal attack by Hamas" and had no difficulty in identifying who was responsible.

Maybe that was just a slip in a couple of tweets that were sent out, but it is not because there is an amendment, a countermotion in the Tánaiste's own name, which is very clear in condemning the barbaric attack by Hamas but when it comes to all the victims in Gaza, what does it have to say? It "deeply deplores the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, including the death of over 11,000 people," etc., etc., "following Israel's military actions in Gaza". It is very passive language. Later on, it "also condemns the killing of children and civilians". Full stop. There is no mention of who is responsible. How is it that Palestinians just seem to get killed with nobody being responsible, nobody being blamed and nobody being condemned? The Government's response to all this and to our motion will be to say diplomacy is key. We cannot possibly impose sanctions and seek to isolate apartheid Israel. But that is not the truth. It is not the real reason and the Tánaiste knows that because he can compare the response to Israel's assault on Gaza with the response by the Irish Government to Russia's criminal imperialist invasion of Ukraine. Was the Russian ambassador, Filatov, at the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis? Was he invited? Did the Tánaiste go on a propaganda tour to Russia? No. The Irish State expelled Russian diplomats and imposed extensive sanctions on Russia. So what is the difference? Is it the number of casualties? No, it is clearly not. The difference is clear. It is pretty obvious that it is the attitude of the United States. The US supports Israel. It gives billions of dollars, $3 billion or $4 billion a year, in military aid. It has greenlit the current genocide and it has increased the amount it is giving - an extra $14.5 billion. Israel is a crucial ally of the US in the Middle East. Joe Biden famously said that if Israel did not exist, it would have to be invented. So the US supports Israel, whereas it opposes Russia, seeing Russia as a rival imperialism and seeing the criminal invasion by Putin of Ukraine as an opportunity to extend its own sphere of influence. The Tánaiste and his party, as well as Fine Gael and the entire political establishment see Ireland in the US camp. They want us to be more and more in that camp. They would like for us eventually to be in NATO but they know they have to move slowly. So in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, not only has the Government imposed sanctions, it has even participated in military training exercises for Ukrainian troops. In response to Israel's genocide in Gaza, what has it done? Words, words and more words; words attempting to respond to the attitudes of the vast majority of people in this country; words responding to those who are on the streets; words to try to make sure you do not pay a political price for the position that you are taking. But in terms of actions, the Government is doing absolutely nothing. Look at its countermotion. There is not a single action and why? It is because it does not want to offend the US Administration. Moreover, Shannon Airport is at the heart of this relationship, both symbolically and materially. Is Shannon Airport being used to transport weapons from the US to Israel? The truth is, I do not know. The truth is that the Tánaiste and the Government do not know either because they refuse to do inspections. We do know it is very likely that troops have been going through Shannon Airport to the region to assist in the US agenda of backing up Israel's genocide on Gaza. We know there has been a significant 50% increase in munitions allowances, indicating an increase in troops going, and we know that the US is the biggest supporter of the genocide being inflicted on the people of Gaza. It is absolutely wrong. It is scandalous that they continue to be allowed to use Shannon Airport. Shannon Airport must be shut down for the US military.

As for the final point I want to make, the Tánaiste yesterday stated the reason the Government cannot support the motion is because we do not include a condemnation of Hamas. That is not true. We know that is not true because that is not all the Government does in its own countermotion. We know that is not true because last week, the Government Members voted against motions that did condemn Hamas. Why do we not include it? Is it because we support the killing of civilians? Of course not. Is it because we support the taking of hostages civilian hostages? Of course not. Is it because we politically support Hamas? Of course not. Why? It is because we do not accept the narrative that history began on 7 October; that all the killings in this year by Israel before then did not matter; that the 17 years of blockade of Gaza did not matter; that the 75 years of dispossession, of ethnic cleansing, of apartheid; that none of that matters and none of that is relevant. We do not accept that. This new moment was be used not only to push for a permanent ceasefire but to say this is the moment to build a movement that is actually capable of assisting in winning liberation for the people of Palestine.

Millions of people across the world have taken to the streets in cities to show their solidarity and absolute horror at what has gone on in the last six weeks in Gaza. Last Saturday, more than 50,000 people went on the streets in Dublin and Belfast to show their solidarity. A whole cohort of people are becoming politicised by what is going on in Gaza. Not only do they see the hypocrisy of the Western powers but also the hypocrisy of the Israeli state. They see that their governments are complicit in their silence when it comes to condemnation of the Israeli state. That is not only now but also in the past. The only comparison I can make in my lifetime was 2003, when millions upon millions of people came out in solidarity with people of Iraq because of what would be subjected on them. We saw 1 million people killed by the American military machine. To those who somehow believe Israel was the beacon of democracy in the sea of despots, I ask what democracy subjects the people of Palestine to 70 years of apartheid? What democracy kills 14,000 in the space of six weeks? What democracy kills 5,000 children? Is there any question? What democracy does that?

Israel has to be held to account for its war crimes. We have said many times Israel must be held to account, whether economically, diplomatically or militarily. Last night, I spoke about the deal that we have with the Defence Forces. It has bought €6 million of Israeli defence equipment. The Tánaiste got kind of tied up about why we should not stop that. Ireland should stop that immediately and Ireland should support the BDS campaign. The boycott and the isolation of Israel has to be re-energised. It was done to apartheid South Africa in the 1980s, so why can it not be done now? Across the world, workers have collectively taken action against the terrible crimes of Israel. In Belgium, port workers have refused to handle Israeli goods. Imagine the kind of knock-on effects across the world, individually and collectively by trade unions refusing to handle Israeli goods? Because it seems that the governments of this country and others will do nothing whatsoever. It is business as usual. Can the Tánaiste tell me that after everything that has happened in the past six weeks, it is business as usual? Come on. He knows it is not. We cannot treat Israel like a normal state. It is not a normal state. It subjects the Palestinian people to apartheid and it is a state of racism. The only way the State of Israel survives is the perpetual oppression of the Palestinian people and the perpetual sense of violence and brutality against them. The Palestinian people have a right to defend themselves and to challenge and resist occupation. We will always stand with the Palestinian people. It is so important that Ireland has a huge empathy and solidarity with the people of Palestine and with all oppressed people across the world. We must stand up for the people of Palestine. We have to show moral courage and principle. What is being done to the people is absolutely wrong and we must hold Israel to account.

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all the words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

"deeply deplores the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, including the death of over 11,000 people, including 5,000 children, over 100 United Nations (UN) workers and over 40 journalists, and the damage and destruction of hospitals, schools, UN premises, and infrastructure in Gaza, following Israel's military actions in Gaza;

condemns the barbaric attack by Hamas on Israel on 7th October, in which 1,200 people were killed and at least 243 people were kidnapped, and demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and for an immediate ceasefire;

also condemns the killing of children and civilians;

reiterates its deep concern at violence in the West Bank, in particular settler violence against Palestinian communities causing displacement;

demands immediate, large scale, rapid, unhindered, and safe humanitarian access, to include food, clean water, fuel and medical supplies to more than two million people in Gaza, and deplores the displacement of over 1.5 million people in Gaza;

notes that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced the opening of an investigation into the situation in Palestine (including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem) in March 2021, and that the Prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, has reaffirmed, most recently on 17th November, that this investigation covers the current, ongoing conflict, including all events on and from 7th October this year;

welcomes the Government's allocation of a further €3 million to the ICC, to adequately resource such an investigation;

also reiterates that all hostages should be released immediately and unconditionally;

agrees that:

— all members of the international community have an obligation to respect and ensure respect for international humanitarian law, in all situations of armed conflict, and that all alleged breaches of international humanitarian law must be investigated, and perpetrators held to account;

— a war crime is defined by the nature of the act, not the identity of the perpetrator, and international humanitarian law, including the prohibition on the targeting of civilians, the principles of distinction, precaution and proportionality, the prohibition on collective punishment, and the prohibition on the taking of hostages and use of 'human shields', applies to all armed conflicts and is binding on all parties; and

— there are no planes with weapons en route to Israel stopping at Shannon Airport or any other Irish airport; and

calls on the Government to:

— intensify its calls and advocacy for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages;

— pursue all possible avenues at the European Union (EU) and the UN to build an international alliance for peace, to provide a pathway away from violence and back to the negotiation table;

— provide strong leadership at EU level to advocate for a comprehensive response, based on the founding values of the EU of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, which are embedded in the Treaty on the European Union;

— uphold the importance and centrality of diplomacy at times of conflict;

— intensify its advocacy against all breaches of international law;

— ensure that justice and accountability apply equally to all people, in all situations, and reiterates that all victims deserve their rights to be vindicated equally; and

— continue Ireland's consistent and strong support for the ICC and upholds the independence and impartiality of the Court.".

It has been impossible to witness the events in the Middle East since 7 October without feeling utter dismay, horror and ever-increasing anger and alarm. I have no doubt that Members across the Dáil share these sentiments and I know the Irish public do too.

I will shortly address the matter of the motion tabled today by People Before Profit but I would like to look at the broader situation before I do so. First, I welcome the news breaking last night and early this morning of an agreement between Israel and Hamas on the release of some hostages held in Gaza and a limited truce. While full details of what has been agreed and the timings are still emerging, this is an important and positive step, and will, hopefully, facilitate the access to humanitarian assistance needed so urgently by the people of Gaza and return some of those held by Hamas to their loved ones.

Our focus, in particular, is on nine-year-old Irish citizen, Emily Hand. I know Deputies will understand if I do not go into detail on Emily's case. We have worked consistently for her release over recent weeks, including through extensive contacts with regional partners. I take this chance to note that Ireland unreservedly condemns the practice of hostage-taking and appeals for the immediate release of all remaining hostages. The efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt in securing this agreement are to be commended. Their work highlights the value of effective diplomacy. The release of hostages and truce have potential to be an important step towards a de-escalation of this conflict and we urge all parties to now prioritise the humanitarian needs of Gaza's civilian population, extend any ceasefire and find a way to return to the negotiating table.

Ireland is widely recognised to have projected global leadership on this crisis since 7 October. We have taken a principled, human-centred approach and rightly stressed the need to protect ordinary people thrust into the front lines of terrible conflict. International humanitarian law is there to protect the most vulnerable in our darkest moments. I am proud of the Government’s principled approach to this conflict. Those principles will continue to underpin our work. I am pleased to note that 51 Irish citizens and their dependents have now been assisted to leave Gaza via the Rafah crossing into Egypt by the Department of Foreign Affairs. In the context of what has just been said, motions did not get these Irish citizens out of Gaza, diplomacy did. This is the bottom line.

A small number of Irish citizens remain in Gaza. Ireland will continue to work tirelessly with the relevant authorities on additional cases where these arise and to assist in instances where other Irish citizens and dependants wish to exit Gaza. These relevant authorities include Israel, which has a huge say in terms of who leaves Gaza right now, whether you like it or not. Getting rid of diplomatic channels would not in any way have helped to get Irish citizens out of Gaza or, indeed, their dependants. The assistance provided to Irish citizens in Gaza is a practical demonstration of the value of diplomacy in highly challenging circumstances. I take this opportunity to commend our dedicated teams in Dublin and on the ground in Egypt, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territory. They have been doing extraordinary work since the beginning of the crisis, and I think it is important for all Deputies in this House to recognise that.

I attended the European Union Foreign Affairs Council on Monday and I took that opportunity to report on my visit to the region. Many interventions at the council echoed points that I had made several weeks ago, earlier in this conflict. Our perspective is influential at a European level. There is a growing realisation among member states that the EU needs to do much more to deliver a two-state solution to ensure peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Last week, I visited Egypt, Israel and the West Bank. Deputy Murphy omitted to mention my visit to Egypt and my visit to the West Bank-----

On my visit, I had the opportunity to engage in person with a range of interlocutors. I took every opportunity to stress the need for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, for de-escalation and for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, including Emily Hand.

During my visit, I also visited the Sderot area in southern Israel, meeting with families and communities affected by the terrible Hamas attacks of 7 October. I regret very much that Deputy Murphy seems to think the visit to Kibbutz Be'eri was a propaganda visit.

-----is incomprehensible and shows a complete disregard for the loss of human life in respect of the Hamas attack on that particular neighbourhood. That is informative in itself. We have not forgotten and nor do we underestimate the impact of those brutal attacks on the people in Israel. Our thoughts continue to be with those who have been killed, including our fellow citizen, Kim Damti, and those left bereaved, left terrorised, left injured and those who have been taken hostage and their families and communities.

In addition to the appalling suffering in Gaza, it is important that we continue to highlight the increasing violence in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem. This is a cause for serious concern and Ireland redoubles our calls for the protection of civilians as a priority. At European level and in the region, there is deep concern about the situation in the West Bank and it is something I will continue to raise. Since 7 October, 200 Palestinians, including 52 children, have been killed by Israeli forces, including most recently one death during armed clashes in the Jenin refugee camp. Alongside this, there has been a rise in settler violence and the displacement of Palestinian communities. This is unacceptable and very dangerous. Such actions infringe on the rights of Palestinians, actively undermine the viability of a two-state solution and have to stop. President Biden has indicated that the United States is prepared to take steps to hold extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank to account. This includes issuing visa bans against violent settlers. I will advocate at European level for the European Union to follow suit and implement such sanctions against the individuals responsible.

Accountability is the core plank of Irish foreign policy. In this context, Ireland voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution that included a request to the ICJ to produce an advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory. Last July, Ireland submitted a statement to the ICJ, including information relevant to the questions asked by the General Assembly.

Ireland will continue to be a leading voice in raising these issues. The Government will continue to push for a halt to settler violence and forced displacement, while actively supporting the resilience of Palestinians living under threat.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic and has worsened daily. The reports of the situation and the numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza are truly horrific. Most recent reports suggest that up to 14,000 people have been killed and more than 1.5 million people have been displaced, a huge proportion of the population, which is totally unacceptable. Gaza’s civilian population urgently needs food, water and medical supplies and international agencies, including the UN, need sustained access and adequate fuel to ensure that these vital supplies can be distributed without further delay. I very much hope the truce announced this morning will be the first step towards that essential sustained humanitarian access at scale.

Amid the terrible toll of civilian lives in Gaza are the deaths of over 100 UN staff. In addition, more than 200 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war. Healthcare workers should never have to be exposed to such horror. We pay tribute to their bravery and that of all humanitarian workers in Gaza who continue to do their best to protect and preserve the lives of civilians. It is essential that the international community does more to protect these front-line workers, particularly regarding the provision of healthcare.

A shocking number of journalists have also been killed in Gaza, with more than 40 now believed to have lost their lives. Reporting from a conflict, particularly in a context like Gaza, where there is little safety and no way to leave, is a tremendous act of courage. The work of journalists is essential to highlight and inform the wider world of the situation on the ground.

No more lives should be lost. Ireland has repeatedly and consistently called for a humanitarian ceasefire. I welcome today’s news of progress in this regard and call for it to be a durable and lasting humanitarian ceasefire.

The very real concern of this Government about the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory is shared right across this House. However, the motion proposed by People Before Profit is naive, inaccurate and totally unacceptable, in that it would totally undermine our approach, relevance and capacity to influence, to what limited extent we can, the course of events.

Ireland is rightly seen in the region and across Europe as offering bold and principled leadership on this crisis. I believe this motion, if passed, would fatally undermine our efforts. The Government is clear that no airport in Ireland, whether Shannon or any other airport, is being used to transfer weapons to the Middle East or to any other war. This policy is well known and fully understood by our partners. No applications have been received or exemptions granted in relation to civil aircraft travelling to Israel since the start of the current conflict.

With regard to sanctions, Ireland does not operate any unilateral sanction regimes and the Government implements UN and EU sanctions adopted as part of the Common Foreign and Security Policy. The Government has moved a countermotion today setting out an approach that sees Ireland engaging consistently and effectively at the highest international levels. Our approach is principled and grounded in international law and underlines our commitment to diplomacy and the multilateral system.

I wish to start by making some comments about the so-called humanitarian pause. Before going into the Israeli cabinet meeting last night, Benjamin Netanyahu said:

We are at war, and we will continue the war. We will continue until we achieve all our goals.

It is clear that in the minds of Netanyahu and the Israeli cabinet, this is a short-term pause and when it is over, the killing will resume. Their intention is to resume the killing of Palestinian men, women and children and to carry on with the genocide. For that reason, it is clear that what is needed is not a humanitarian pause but a complete and total ceasefire. If the bombardment stops for four days, then it should stop for good.

All the protests planned in this State and internationally for the weekend should go ahead. This is not a time for stepping back from those protests. The opposite is the case. In fact, now is precisely the time for people to step forward and double and treble the size of those protests to bring more pressure to bear for a total ceasefire.

It is worth asking the question as to why this pause happened. I believe the anti-war demonstrations that have taken place internationally are a factor in this, in particular the protests that have happened in the United States. Next year is an election year in the United States. Some 68% of the public polled in the US want a ceasefire. There have been millions on the streets there, the largest Palestinian solidarity demonstrations in US history. Those who say that protests do not have an effect and that they are only symbolic will see there this a small effect with regard to this, and it needs to become much bigger. I think there was also pressure from within Israel. The families of the hostages, with their "bring them home" campaign and their march on Jerusalem, put pressure to bear on the Israeli Government as well.

People will see on their television screens the release of hostages and will be happy to see that. Here in Ireland, people will be hoping for the release of Emily Hand. The positive feeling that the people watching get from seeing people being released will be absolutely, completely and cruelly tinged by the realisation that Netanyahu and his Cabinet intend to restart the killings within a matter of days.

On the question of hostages, I would make the point that all hostages, not some hostages but all hostages, should be released, and that includes the more than 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, as well as the nearly 3,000 Palestinians who have been taken into administrative detention without charge since 7 October and by the way, that includes 350 children. We found out yesterday that more than 14,000 Palestinians have been killed in the past six weeks, including more than 5,500 children, 33,000 people have been wounded, and more than 6,000 people are unaccounted for. This potentially means that the death toll is over 20,000, which would represent 1% of the population of Gaza having been wiped out in the space of 45 days. What is needed is not a humanitarian pause but a complete and total ceasefire, as well as an end to the root cause of the cycle of violence, which is a brutal, unjust and racist occupation of Palestinian lands.

In the five minutes remaining to me, I will make some points about Shannon Airport. More than 3 million US troops have passed through Shannon since 2002. This has happened under governments that have been led by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, and have been participated in by the Progressive Democrats, the Green Party and the Labour Party. It has become, in effect, a forward operating base for the US military. This year, up to the middle of November, 51,000 US troops have passed through Shannon. In his response this morning, the Tánaiste stated "The Government is clear that no airport in Ireland, whether Shannon or any other airport, is being used to transfer weapons to the Middle East or to any other war." How can the Minister say that? He is not in a position to give a guarantee.

I will give the Minister a second bite at the cherry on that because we have been told that there have been no inspections of US planes. The guarantee is that the US Embassy and the US authorities have said there are no weapons being carried on the planes, and the Government accepts their word. There are a hell of a lot of people in this country and elsewhere who would not accept the word of the US on that. The State should carry out inspections and if the State does not carry them out, then the workers, with the backing of their trade unions, should carry out such inspections. With the genocide that is going on, that is an entirely justifiable policy for the workers to take. It would be in lock-step with the tradition of the Dunnes Stores workers, who boycotted fruit from apartheid South Africa in the 1980s and with the transport workers in Belgium and Catalonia, who are refusing to handle planes and ships carrying war matériel to Israel at present. Of course, taking a stand like that in Shannon would potentially be in breach of the Industrial Relations Act, the Thatcher-style anti-union legislation introduced by Bertie Ahern and his Government back in the day. However, the trade unions should openly state that they are prepared to defy that in order to challenge genocidal policies in the Middle East. Let us see whether there are weapons being carried on US planes. We might not be able to prove where they are bound for but if there are weapons on planes at the moment, can we exclude the possibility that quite a few of them would end up in Israel itself? The US is a major military backer of the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Government, even while it is pursuing a genocide.

As I have two minutes and 20 seconds left, I will finish on this point. I made reference earlier to the question of the campaign waged by the families of the hostages in Israel, the "bring them home" campaign. There is another important development in Israel that I want to bring to the attention of the House, which is the demonstration that was held in Tel Aviv last Saturday. It was an anti-war, anti-occupation demonstration. It was relatively small. There were hundreds of people in attendance but I believe it was hugely significant. It was the first anti-war, anti-occupation demonstration in Israel in the past six weeks. It took place despite those concerned having to go to the Israeli Supreme Court to stop attempts to block it from taking place. It happened despite the fact that the police vetted and confiscated placards and that the Israeli far right counterprotested and used a sound system to try to drown out the protestors. However, they got their message across and I want to let them know that their initiative was seen.

I salute the bravery of the people involved in organising it, including socialists from the Socialist Struggle Movement in Israel, which is part of the International Socialist Alternative, ISA. It was a small demonstration, with participants numbering in the hundreds. I sincerely hope that number grows to thousands and tens of thousands in the week ahead and that participants will join in with the worldwide global opposition to this war that we see on the streets of Dublin, New York, London, Paris and capitals in Middle Eastern countries. What we are seeing first and foremost is opposition to the war. I salute the bravery and resilience of the Palestinian people and the people of Gaza in standing up to this horrific bloodshed and genocide being inflicted upon them by the Israeli state and its backers in foreign governments.

I move amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 1:

After "also condemns the killing of children and civilians", to insert "by Israel".

I thank the People Before Profit Deputies for bringing this important motion before the Dáil and giving us another opportunity to debate the issues.

Words matter, especially when actions seemingly will not be taken. In the context of the horrendous savagery we have seen unfold in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel over the past six and a half weeks, the official words of Ireland matter. It was important that this Parliament was among the first in the world to call for a ceasefire - a full unequivocal ceasefire - and that it repeats that call at every opportunity. The Taoiseach's words were important when he correctly acknowledged that Israeli actions of cutting off power, fuel and water supplies constitute collective punishment. Words were important when our President, Michael D. Higgins, told the world clearly that Ursula von der Leyen did not speak for Ireland when she endorsed Israeli breaches of international law. It was important when the Tánaiste rightly stated that the Israeli assault on Gaza contravenes the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, under which the concepts and principles of necessity and proportionality are key. Words were especially important when the Taoiseach stated that ongoing Israeli atrocities cannot be without consequence.

Irish words matter, not more than but as much as those of anybody else. It would be much better if those words were matched by actions and if the Taoiseach or Tánaiste could point to a single consequence Israel will face for its barbaric and brutal attacks against the people of Palestine. Every possible consequence that has been proposed in the Dáil has been dismissed. Economic sanctions are not possible, we were told, because they are an EU competency. We were informed that diplomatic sanctions would be counterproductive. Political sanctions, the Government says, can only be implemented at a multilateral level, while knowing full well that powerful forces will block any such move. When we proposed to refer to the International Criminal Court the deliberate targeting and killing of civilians, the deliberate targeting and destruction of hospitals and the denial of food and water to innocent men, women and children, the Government told us only last week there is no need for such action and that it would lead to a charge of politicising the court. The day after the Government rejected that call, South Africa and four other states made the referral. I have not seen anyone yet have the audacity to describe the country that knows more than anyone else about apartheid as having politicised the ICC. It is fair to say that South Africa knows the importance of international pressure being brought to bear to bring an end to oppressive and repugnant regimes. South Africans know words matter and they also know actions matter more.

I appeal again this morning to the Government to take action and show leadership. I ask it to tell the world that Ireland demands adherence to international law by every actor in every conflict and that it will condemn war crimes regardless of who commits them. If we do not get to the point just yet that actions are taken, which I hope we will, then words matter more than ever. The Government amendment to the motion from People Before Profit states that the Dáil "condemns the barbaric attack by Hamas on Israel on 7th October, in which 1,200 people were killed and at least 243 people were kidnapped". So say all of us. The amendment goes on to state that the Dáil "also condemns the killing of children and civilians". That is it, full stop. By whom are those killings being done? The Government has yet to condemn explicitly the actions of Israel through an official communiqué of this House. That is why the Sinn Féin amendment to the Government amendment is as simple as can be, proposing to insert two words, "by Israel", after the words "also condemns the killing of children and civilians". As I have just listened to the Tánaiste talking about the principled position of the Government, I expect it to support this very simple amendment. It should do so because words matter.

I thank People Before Profit for putting forward this motion. I have an overwhelming sense of déjà vu today. Last week, I spoke passionately on the same issue during Private Members' business. Palestinians in Gaza have been subject to occupation and oppression for decades. Multiple generations of men, women and children have been born into and subjected to torture and systematic, unlawful and arbitrary killing. How much more carnage must Palestinian people endure before we fellow humans call "Halt"? According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 14,000-plus people have been killed by Israeli attacks since 7 October, almost half of whom were innocent children. Cén luach atá ar shaol leanaí? What price for the life of a child or anybody's life?

Hospitals have been bombed. Schools in which people were sheltering from bombing have been deliberately targeted and destroyed. Refugees fleeing south at Israel's demand were bombed and killed as they fled. Gazans are prisoners at Israel's whim, deprived of water, power, fuel, medical supplies and basic humanitarian aid. Is the Minister of State aware that members of the UN food security sector have been unable to deliver aid to north Gaza as access has been virtually cut off by Israel? Gazans have been starved, with bakeries deliberately destroyed. There is no bread, no water and no medicines. There are children with nothing to eat and newborn babies whose mothers cannot feed them. Bombed hospitals are struggling to treat thousands of injured people with no morphine. One can imagine feeling the pain of amputation or burns and being given a paracetamol. It would not cure a migraine let alone ease the pain of amputation.

Israel must face consequences now for actions that fly in the face of every international and human rights law. Last week, Sinn Féin called for this House to refer Israel's actions to the International Criminal Court. I repeat that call today. Justice and right must be served. The Government needs to step up to the plate and provide strong leadership at EU level. It must intensify its calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate release of all hostages. I welcome that some hostages are being released but it must be all, not some. The eyes of the world are on us. Ireland is 25 years into a peace process that is the envy of this world. The people of Palestine and Gaza deserve the same. A full ceasefire is needed. I am very disappointed that the Tánaiste has left the Chamber.

I thank People Before Profit for the opportunity to discuss this really important issue. I welcome the news that there is talk of a planned four-day truce in the bombardment of Gaza. I welcome reports that Hamas has agreed to release 50 Israeli hostages. Like everybody in this House, I really hope Emily Hand is among them. I also welcome that Israel will release 150 Palestinian hostages as part of the process. The truce must be the seed of peace talks. However, the commentary this morning indicates that Israel is intent on continuing its genocidal bombardment of Gaza. There have been previous peace deals but Israel has continued to impose its apartheid regime on the Palestinian people. It continued its deliberate seizing of Palestinian lands and displacing Palestinians from their homes. It continued to imprison men, women and children without trial.

Israel is an occupying force and Israel is playing the victim. The reason Israel portrays itself as the victim is the lack of sanctions by the international community. The international community is complicit by standing by as Israel commits war crimes. Israel's propaganda machine likes to portray the situation in Gaza as only beginning on 7 October. I stood in this Chamber last week and named several young Palestinian children who were murdered by Israel prior to 7 October this year. The propaganda machine will not mention the increasing hostilities by the illegal Israeli settlers towards the Palestinian people in the West Bank. The West Bank is not controlled by Hamas. Over 200 Palestinian people have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since 7 October. Over 2,000 Palestinians from the West Bank have been interned without trial by Israel since 7 October. The international community stands idly by and allows this to happen with no consequences and no sanctions. The ordinary people in Ireland and across the world are crying out to stop the slaughter. Some 14,000 men, women and children have been slaughtered in Gaza. I joined tens of thousands of people in a march of solidarity with the Palestinian people at the weekend. I joined the people again when I called for sanctions against Israel.

I call on Micheál Martin to stop pointing at holes in ceilings and start fixing the holes in his own party's policies when it comes to Palestine. I would like Ireland to formally recognise the state of Palestine and impose sanctions now.

I welcome the news today that the Israeli apartheid regime and Hamas have agreed a deal that will see women and children who are held hostage by both regimes being released. I reiterate the call that all hostages including the hundreds held by Hamas and the thousands being held by the Israeli regime are released without any preconditions. I note that despite the horrors inflicted on the Palestinian people so far in Gaza the Israeli apartheid government has stated its full intention to continue the slaughter. We know that this will result in tens of thousands more deaths and the total destruction of homes, hospitals, schools, medical facilities, mosques, churches, bakeries and the entire infrastructure of Gaza.

Last Saturday I attended a march and rally with tens of thousands of people from all over Ireland. People are sickened by the slaughter in Gaza with increasing violence, evictions, thuggery and murders of Palestinians by the settlers in conjunction with the Israeli army.

I have listened to the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste talk about the horrific actions of the Israeli murder machine, with the full endorsement of their government and the full endorsement of the United States of America, Britain, France and Germany. The time for action is now because in a few months there may be no Palestinian Gaza. In a few years or sooner there may be no Palestinian West Bank. The ethnic cleansing of a people did not start on 7 October. It started more than 75 years ago and it will be completed soon if there is no real tangible action against the Israeli apartheid regime.

The Irish Government acted when Russia invaded Ukraine with sanctions and referral to the International Criminal Court, ICC. Russian leaders and businesses close to the Russian Government had assets seized. We had embargoes against Russian oil and gas at a huge cost to ordinary citizens, but that was the right thing to do. When you walk into this Parliament you see the Ukrainian flag side-by-side with our national flag. We lit this building up with the Ukrainian colours. When Irish people look at the Government's words in relation to Palestine and then look at its actions on Ukraine, they see the Government's hypocrisy. It is time to recognise the state of Palestine. It is time to sanction the Israeli apartheid regime just as we did against the apartheid South African regime and the Russian Government. It is time to impose sanctions on those individuals who are carrying out genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. The Government can show leadership in the EU and in the world. The people of Ireland will back the Government. The people of Ireland will stand with the Government if it takes real action.

I thank People Before Profit for bringing forward this motion. Children screaming out the names of the their dead parents, frantic fathers running with their badly wounded children wrapped in their trembling arms, mothers bereft of any emotion looking upon a maze of dead bodies wrapped in blood-soaked sheets while others search in vain for their children entombed under tonnes of rubble and concrete where Gaza has become a mass graveyard of children: this is our daily viewing in our news feeds and on TV. Hospitals, schools, mosques and other places of worship are no longer considered places of protection and sanctuary and are construed to be legitimate targets. The Al-Shifa Hospital was ordered to evacuate the wounded, the sick, the elderly and newborn babies. Where to? Into the abyss? The Al Fakhoura school in the Jabalia refugee camp was bombed and obliterated by Israeli air raids. The massacres go on and on as Israel becomes engulfed in brutal collective punishment and unleashing an insatiable regime of revenge on Gaza and the millions of Palestinians. Once again we hear “Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war”. Medics, doctors, nurses, UN workers, paramedics, journalists, children, everyone and everything has become a target.

It is time to call an immediate and permanent ceasefire on all sides, including Hamas. It is time for UN and Europe to take affirmative action and call for sanctions of the State of Israel. It is time for the Irish Government to refer Israel to the International Criminal Court for investigation into alleged war crimes. South Africa has had the courage to do so and so must we. Now is the time to recognise Palestine. Now is the time to enact the occupied territories Bill and stop the illegal plantation by Israeli settlers on Palestinian land. Under law IV of the Geneva Convention the occupying powers power shall not transport its population into territories that it occupies. Now is the time for sanctions and to demand the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement and the Horizon research and development arrangements, which allow Israel to access a fund worth €95 billion. This must be stopped until Israel complies with its human rights obligations.

I will conclude with a quote from a Palestinian from a small village in the West Bank known as Firing Zone 918:

I have tended this land with my family ever since I was a child. Every year I have watched Israeli soldiers and settlers take more of my land, seal our wells, cut water lines, and destroy the roads that connect our village.

This is a daily course of action, tied up by illegal Israeli settlers and backed by the Israel Defense Forces on a so-called military zone, aptly named as a firing zone.

I say to the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, to let our nation be on the right side of world history. Let us never be judged to have stood on the side of tyranny.

I too thank People Before Profit for bringing this motion before the House. This motion notes the systematic abuses of Palestinian people over the decades, as well as the current bombardment, displacement and discrimination of the Palestinian people. A system of apartheid is firmly in place when it comes to the attitude adopted by the Israeli State towards the Palestinian people who, it has to be said, are not treated with the equality that the Israeli Government would demand for itself. Instead, we hear the dehumanising comments and we see an approach that seeks to justify killing of civilians and especially children on a scale and of such speed that it has been described by the United Nations Secretary-General as unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict he has witnessed while in his role. And the world watches on, just like the world has watched on as Palestinians were displaced, discriminated against, subjugated and, as we have seen now and in the past, indiscriminately killed.

In this discussion, we need to look closer to home at what we are or what we are not doing. In May, Deputy John Brady brought forward legislation designed to compel the Irish Strategic Investment Fund to divest its investments in enterprises contained in the UN database of business enterprises involved in certain activities relating to illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. This Government kicked the can down the road on that one. If we continue to stop short of sanctioning the Israeli Government for its actions, Israel will continue to pursue its objectives undeterred, as it has done in the past.

Let us not overlook the activity at Shannon Airport. The Minister for Foreign Affairs has told Members of this House that all foreign military aircraft wishing to overfly or land in the State require diplomatic clearance from him. Diplomatic clearance is subject to conditions including that the aircraft is unarmed, carries no arms, does not engage in intelligence gathering and that the flight in question does not form part of a military exercise or operation. When asked for the steps he has taken to ensure that military aircraft of foreign states landing in Ireland or overflying through our airspace comply with these conditions, the Minister appears to be deliberately vague.

Last week Sinn Féin brought forward a motion in which we asked for the Israeli actions to be referred to the ICC requesting an investigation into the acts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. I put it to the Minister of State that this is what is happening here. It is genocide and ethnic cleansing at its worst.

The actions of Hamas on 7 October ought to be condemned and so ought the continuing actions of the Israeli Government. We need to reflect that sentiment in our actions and not just our words.

Gaza is under genocidal attack by Israel. We all welcome what we may have in 24 hours, but that is only a temporary reprieve. We welcome the negotiation that involves Qatar and the United States of America, far better than the billions in weapons they have been providing, alongside political cover and even experts on the ground. All civilians should be released. We hope among the 50 hostages that Emily Hand is released. We know there are more than 150 Palestinian hostages. At this point in time they are in their thousands. Some of them are kids who are in for throwing stones. That is the problem. We need to deal with this fully. We need a complete ceasefire.

The only solution is long-term negotiations and self-determination for the Palestinian people. Israel has never been held to account and so has never needed to deal with the realities on the ground. What did Netanyahu say?

We are at war and we will continue the war until we achieve all our goals ... To destroy Hamas, return all our hostages and ensure that no entity in Gaza can threaten [Israel].

Where will this stop? Nothing in Gaza can be a threat to Israel. Almost 15,000 people have been killed, including 5,500 children. When will enough be enough?

We can look at exactly who the people in the Israeli regime are. Smotrich spoke about the voluntary evacuation of Gazans stating that the "only solution" is for refugees to be accepted by countries around the world that truly wish for their well-being "with generous financial support and assistance from the international community, including the State of Israel". That is only part of it. They are an absolute disgrace. We need to call them out. We need to do what South Africa did. We need to refer Israel as a war criminal to the International Criminal Court. We need to consider the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill and the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill and do what others are doing at the minute, which is looking to recognise the state of Palestine. We need to make sure Israel is called out as the war criminal it is and ensure a real ceasefire is being negotiated.

I thank People Before Profit for tabling this motion, which affords us all an opportunity to speak again on what we are witnessing.

Edmund Burke was a Dubliner. He spent time in Westminster as an MP and he is reported to have said that the only way evil can prosper is for good men to do nothing. It is evil we are witnessing day after day and not only are good men and women not doing anything, but they are cheerleading it. It is with absolute depression that I witness what is happening to supposed respectable, progressive, western democracies in the face of this evil we are witnessing, including the deaths of thousands and thousands of children, what appears to be the destruction of an entire people and bloodthirsty rhetoric, which is completely unsurprising to anyone who has observed this conflict over a period of years.

The attitude of the US, the UK and the EU is such that the level of respect we would have had for them in this House heretofore has been tarnished and possibly broken. If Ursula von der Leyen decided to come to this House next week, as she has in the past, I do not think many of us would feel that we could consider sitting in the same room as that person after what she has done, effectively cheerleading this evil. If Joe Biden were to come next week as President of America, as he has done in the past, we would have an awful lot of empty seats as a result of the backing the US has given to Israel over prolonged periods and in this conflict. It is with absolute disgust that I note that the only member of Congress to have been censured over remarks on this conflict is a Palestinian-American citizen. The attitude of politics in the UK, including of our sister party, the British Labour Party, is of huge disappointment to me and to other members of the Irish Labour Party because we have to call out evil for what it is.

I reject the suggestion that, before you make a comment about what Israel is doing, you have to automatically answer a question about Hamas. I do not remember in my childhood that before those who felt strongly about British state terrorism in Ireland got the words out of their mouths, they had to say they had a problem with the IRA. Of course, we have difficulty with it and we absolutely condemn evil. We absolutely condemn the actions of Hamas on 7 October - that goes without saying - but this is state sponsored evil on a catastrophic scale and it is being cheer-led by supposed liberal, progressive, enlightened, western democracies.

In fairness to the Minister of State and the Government, while many people can be critical of them, Ministers in this Government have stood apart from the European mainstream and said things that would probably have gotten them thrown out of every parliament in Europe and a number of political parties across Europe. Some of the statements have been quite strong. The Taoiseach called it revenge. A Minister said it is a war on children. A Minister said peace cannot be built on the graves of children. These are extremely strong statements and we should recognise that in the context of what other EU leaders are not saying.

The Minister of State and I are both children of the 1980s and we grew up at a time when there was an ethical understanding of what was happening in South Africa and we knew we had to do things differently. We were different and if the South African rugby team came to Dublin we were not going to be quiet and let it just happen. When the Dunnes Stores workers took a stand - women took a stand - against South African produce being stocked in Dunnes Stores, they were supported by the ordinary people of Dublin. If we are waiting for a collective response from the EU, it will never happen. It will never ever happen. The attitude of Germany and Austria, due to their history with the Holocaust, is understandable on one level, but they cannot, in reflecting on their national trauma over the Holocaust, facilitate the evil we are witnessing day by day. We have to stand aside from the European mainstream if that is what it takes and apply sanctions on Israel, as we did on South Africa in the past because Israel will continue to do this until there is a consequence. There is no consequence. Israel can kill as many Palestinian children as it likes. It can shoot as many stone throwers in the West Bank as it pleases and it will be cheer-led and offered more weapons by those who preach democracy.

All of us in this Chamber underestimate how important Ireland is. Our neutrality is important. Our history is important. What we have suffered on this island is important. The conflict we witnessed as children is important. The fact that we understand the nature of war, violence, sectarianism and what they do is important. The wounds are still unhealed so we understand the damage that is being done, not only in terms of lives but in terms of intergenerational trauma and we understand the thirst for justice the Palestinian people have.

We can no longer stand idly by and say we will just wait for everybody else in the EU to come to the same conclusion we have and then we can collectively act. It is just never ever going to happen. Until we have a moment where we have exactly the same attitude to Israel as we had in the 1980s to South Africa, which led to huge change, we will be back here next year, the year after, in five years and in ten years. Does anybody really feel that if we do not do that, we will not have these debates again and again? What will the body count of Palestinian children be then? There is no other way. The only response is South Africa-style sanctions, as we did in the 1980s. It will be necessary and I want the Government to lead on it.

I thank People Before Profit for bringing forward this motion. We are living through the most horrific times.

In that regard, I am grateful, insofar as one can be, that this Chamber gets to debate what contribution Ireland can make, however small or large, in stopping the depravity that we are watching being inflicted on the human beings in Gaza right now.

Last week, the Social Democrats brought forward a motion, as People Before Profit-Solidarity has done today. In it, we set out a range of measures that we can take, with the support of many thousands of Irish people who are watching television in horror, taking to the streets to demand both a ceasefire and consequences, and writing to our offices to ask that we go further in our actions than we have to this point. We brought it forward because, like those people, we believe that words have lost their meaning and the Irish State should go further and attempt to enact sanctions on the State of Israel for the heinous war crimes it is inflicting upon the Palestinian people, be that in Gaza or the West Bank.

I do not intend to relive that debate in discussing the People Before Profit-Solidarity's motion, but I do wish to place on record my abhorrence at the statement that was sent out from the Tánaiste's party, Fianna Fáil, justifying its continued policy of words over actions. That has continued today in the Tánaiste's statement. Through media appearances and from the party's official social media accounts, Fianna Fáil and its representatives have seen fit to tell others that "this is a crisis that should not be politicised". As the person who proposed the Social Democrats motion, there is nothing more political than the systematic murder of children or what the UN has referred to as an impending genocide, such as is being inflicted on the Palestinian people in Gaza by the Israeli State. I will make no apologies for doing all that we can to push our Republic into a space where we offer more than harsh words on an international stage without having the requisite courage to go beyond that and call for actual sanctions, be they multilateral or not. That is my preference but that is not going to happen. What we are demanding is that the State go further in its words. We will come to some of the suggestions that have been made in this motion, and other things that we can do.

The Tánaiste said the Irish State is held in high regard internationally. By whom? The bar is extraordinarily low. The US has become not only an apologist for genocide, but an enabler of it. The European Union has lost its integrity. Not only would we show up, but there would be hundreds of thousands of people outside to condemn the words that Ursula von der Leyen has used and the free rein she has given to the slaughter in Gaza. Germany saw fit to make illegal the protests of its own citizens against this slaughter. The world has lost its humanity, yet we hear it said that we are held in high regard and all is fine. We can go further. We fought hard for our Republic and I think we can go further in this respect.

I do not believe for a moment that I or anyone else in the Chamber has a monopoly on compassion or concern for what we are seeing unfold in Gaza and the West Bank. More than that, I acknowledge fully the integrity and the efforts that are being made by the Tánaiste in trying to play his role and do what he believes is the best he can to bring the conflict to a cessation or, at a minimum, bring home our citizens. However, I fundamentally believe that we can go further.

One area where we can go further, which is highlighted well in the motion, is on the issue of apartheid. This Government refused to endorse the findings and recommendations of Amnesty International's 2021 report, Israel's Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity. As the Minister of State will undoubtedly know, that report publicly recognised that international crimes against humanity, including the crime of apartheid as defined in the Rome Statue and the apartheid convention, are being committed by Israel against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories. As recently as 28 September, I asked the Tánaiste if, on his recent visit to the Middle East, he had used the word "apartheid". The response given was that the Government does not use the term "apartheid". The Tánaiste went on to say that the justification used by the Government was that it felt that the word, in and of itself, was unhelpful.

Ireland has regularly and rightly named a range of human rights violations detailed in the report, including illegal settlements. We have talked about forced evictions and have acknowledged the demolitions, torture, detentions, unlawful killings, etc. What the Government must also do, which it has not done to date, is suggest that these are connected and that the culmination of all of these systematic forms of oppression constitute the crime of apartheid in international law. It was never about phraseology or whether a particular word was helpful. It is a matter of law, and international law is clear that such a system of domination and oppression by one racial group over another constitutes the crime against humanity of apartheid.

Just two months on since we had that conversation, we are talking about very different and even more sinister words, but the Tánaiste and the Government still refuse to use them. I refer to war crimes, international law violations, ethnic cleansing and, most hideous of all, genocide, which is discussed very well in the motion. In the comprehensive diatribe with which the Tánaiste responded, he refused to even used the word "genocide". We know the reason he refuses to use it.

I will give a legal definition of genocide. The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as

... any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

That constitutes the crime of genocide. Only last week, the Tánaiste visited the Middle East. He went to Egypt, the West Bank and Israel. I share the sentiments expressed by Deputy Paul Murphy in relation to that visit. Can the Tánaiste really avert his gaze and say that what we are witnessing in the region does not constitute the crime of genocide? When we pull away from doing so, it is described as being statesman-like. It is not statesman-like or diplomatic; it is an act of cowardice that basically holds us just slightly above those enabling this genocide. We will not be complicit in it.

There are a number of measures that we could and should take. We should call it for what it is. I still cannot get over that last week a Minister of the Government, Deputy Harris, referred to a war on children, said that peace cannot be built on the graves of children and then saw fit to vote against any sanction for that. The Tánaiste said that we are held in high regard internationally. What will future generations think, when they read about this genocide in decades to come and find that an Irish Minister could use those words and then vote against sanctions? It is unconscionable.

The Minister of State's party, Fianna Fáil, introduced Second Stage of the occupied territories Bill in 2019. One of the phrases used then was "If not now, when?" In response to the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill brought forward by Sinn Féin a few months ago, Deputy Michael McGrath, a Fianna Fáil Minister, said that the Government was looking into the matter to see what it could do in terms of enacting the legislation and that it could take about nine months. If not now, when? The Fianna Fáil Party MEP, Barry Andrews, sought to solicit the support of other members of the party's European group to implement human rights provisions in the EU-Israel trade agreements. Last week and today, Fianna Fáil called us naive for calling for the very same sanctions that the party once stood for. That was when it did not have to stand for them, however. The Government should have the courage to go beyond itself. Words matter.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this very emotive subject. We have seen, over the last month, the murder of innocent children, men, women and families in Palestine. We have also seen the same thing happening in Israel. I condemn both Israel and Hamas for the actions they have taken in using children, men, women and families as a shield for some objective or some righteousness that they think they have on either side. We have to call this out on both sides for what it is. It is totally wrong. We can put whatever kind of definition on it, but it is just not right in the world.

I am disappointed at the attitude of the US and of Ursula von der Leyen and the European Union in not being more straightforward in their condemnation of Israel's actions. We have done it with Russia, lest that war that is still going on be forgotten. We also brought in sanctions. We heard last night that there will be a four-day cessation of violence to allow people to be evacuated. That is the first sign of hope for the people living in the region that the diplomacy that has been going on behind closed the scenes is working. I would say the Irish Government has played a part in that. While we may not be the most popular country with Israel at the moment, I think we have done what we are always expected to do, namely, to be on the side of right, to be available and to try to bring together a diplomatic solution to this particular issue.

Luke Silke of the Aontú party was out in Mexico and Colombia last week. He was telling me how in Colombia they are using the Irish model for getting peace in Northern Ireland to try to repair the fractious behaviour they have over there. That in itself says something about Ireland and how we got peace going in Northern Ireland, which can be modelled in other places. It takes a huge effort. I will be calling on everybody in this House, including the Government, to plead with the participants in this vile destruction of one another. I appeal to the US and the European Union and anybody else in the world who can exert diplomatic influence to use these four days to try to set in place dialogue about getting a more permanent ceasefire. I hope we get a stage where we can deliver peace in that part of the world.

Since I was a child, I have been hearing about the Gaza Strip and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, PLO. I was not a child yesterday; I go back a good while. There has been strife there for generations. It has been built into children, and no wonder when we see what is happening to children. It is a breeding ground for further extreme groups who have no other concept because of what they experienced as children. We have to bear that in mind. We saw in Northern Ireland when there were atrocities and people were killed how families became deeply rooted in hatred because of what happened to a member of their family. This is not an easy task. We can talk about economic recoveries in countries, the economy and budgets. We will deal with the Finance Bill tonight and all of this kind of stuff. At the end of the day, if we do not have life and if people cannot live in peace, in the comfort of knowing they are safe in their homes or hospitals, we are going no place in this world.

I believe there are a lot of behind-the-scenes, back-channel discussions going on to try to get people to agree a more permanent ceasefire. I take the four days we have now as a time for people to draw their breath and allow those who want to leave to do so. I hope it is not clearing the pitch to commence another torrent of destruction on infrastructure and people. It is unbelievable, in 2023, that people in this world still want to inflict such hardship, pain and death on one another. It is an incredible thing that we have not learned from all the wars we have had. Previous generations and centuries have been full of wars.

It is very easy to say what should be done but it is another job to do it in a diplomatic way, so we are trying to make progress rather than trying to push people away. That is why it is very important that we retain the Israeli ambassador and our diplomatic links with every country. We must think about the soldiers we have in Lebanon, which is not far away, and what they are doing for peacekeeping. We have to be conscious that if this violence escalates and spreads further, it will put our peacekeeping force in extreme danger. We have to take that into account as well. We have links with all of these countries in the Middle East for one reason or another, including with Israel for high-level medical support for our UN soldiers. We have got to look at everything. It is important that everybody in the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, and everybody else go a little bit further in their efforts to bring a lasting solution and be part of it.

One of the things we have to do is convince the US and the European Union that there is a way forward. Let us try to work with the EU as well as getting Israel and Palestine together. There has to be a solution. Everybody says it is a two-state solution. So be it. I have heard that being talked about for a long time. I heard the Taoiseach talking about it yesterday. It is the only solution in his view. Let us try to work on a solution rather than condemning one another. We can condemn every action that has been taken, and rightly so. There is nobody in this conflict that has done things right when people are dying in such numbers and children are dying. We see babies in incubators being deprived of oxygen and electricity that they need to live. It is indescribably cruel and I do not know how anybody who is involved in that or perpetrates that type of crime can sleep at night. With God's help and the help of all rational people, we will get a solution. It might take time but we should work on it together.

I and my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group condemn all war and violence. We also condemn the killing of innocent people in this war but we do so by condemning both sides and not turning a blind eye to what happened on 7 October, when women were raped by Hamas terrorists, others were killed and children were killed. Over 200 hostages were taken into Gaza by Hamas and up to 1,200 people were killed, including 200 who were attending a musical festival. Just stand back and imagine if a terrorist group from the North of Ireland came in here and carried out those atrocities on our men, women and children. What would the reaction be?

The current escalation of the war in Gaza is causing us all severe concern. The number of civilians killed in Israel's war on Gaza has been unparalleled and unprecedented. Such killings by either side engaged in conflict are unwarranted. That is why we support a full ceasefire. We condemn the fact that more than 13,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel's bombardment began after the 7 October attack in Israel. The official death toll from the Hamas attack stands at around 1,200.

This motion, if approved, may be perceived by some as taking a side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, potentially impacting Ireland's image of neutrality by calling for specific actions against Israel and endorsing the BDS movement. The motion aligns with a stance critical of Israeli policies and undermines Ireland's position as a neutral country. All hostages need to be released, including Emily Hand. As international pressure mounts on Israel to cease its military campaign, concerns persist about the country's reluctance to change its stance. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Saturday that he would reject any ceasefire that did not include the release of hostages held by Hamas. Israel's continued military operation has drawn criticism from various quarters, with calls for the country to stop the collective punishment of the Gazan population. Last week, we discussed a motion in here to expel Israeli ambassador. I felt it was an immature and unprofessional motion. The door must stay open, as hurtful and as hard as it is to allow that to happen at times. The party to my right, Sinn Féin, knows that as well as any other party in the country. For many years, its members were excluded from opening their mouths to the media or anybody else. The Troubles continued during those years but when those bans were lifted, peace seeped into our country. Since then, peace has been our way forward. My view was that expelling an ambassador would start tit-for-tat expulsions from Ireland and Israel, which would not gain us anything other than a bit of media exposure and we might not even get that throughout the world. As a neutral country, our role is to do our best to broker a peace deal. I plead with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach to continue to use our neutrality as the mechanism to broker a peace deal between countries that are at war, a severe and sad war, at this time.

Somebody spoke about the Irish model of how we got peace. That model is being looked at abroad, between Israel, Hamas and others, to see if it could be used in their country. It certainly can. There is only one way.

As far as I know, there will be a ceasefire for the next few days, which will, thankfully, get hostages out of danger. I hope it will work out to be a long-term ceasefire.

This is a very worrying situation that has affected everyone all over the world. People are outraged at what is going on and what has gone on. We welcome the word that has come through this morning that there is some breakthrough and that peace may be about to happen. We all hope and pray that it does happen.

I condemn what has happened here since 7 October. I am neutral in the sense that we cannot go in there. We do not have powers for the Army to intervene. I believe that all this House can do is call for peace and appeal to all sides to end this conflict, which is creating such a loss of life. We all feel for Emily Hand and her father and all the other people who have been kidnapped. They must be released by Hamas and, likewise, Israel must cease the military action and the force it has used for a number of weeks now.

As far as I can see, both sides are wrong. It has to stop when we see a group of dead babies together in a room somewhere. We all love children and look forward to seeing them grow up and become our future. What is happening, the numbers involved, is wrong. However, this motion does not mention the word "peace" or the kidnapping of Emily Hand. We all want peace.

I do not support the reference in the motion to stopping American aeroplanes refuelling in Shannon. Do people think the US could not get petrol for its aeroplanes anywhere else? The planes can go to the North of Ireland, where we do not have any jurisdiction. We do not have any jurisdiction over what will happen in England. Shannon Airport is barely able to keep going. I had many joyous days there when I was welcoming family coming home and I had many lonesome days there when they were departing. It is an airport that is trying to keep going and I do not see why we should stop the activity given that the Americans will get the petrol somewhere else. I have not seen them doing any harm in all the years. It is just ridiculous to include-----

I did not interrupt Deputy Murphy. All I will say to this fellow here and to the other fellow who is not here at all, Deputy Barry, is that if there was one shot fired in Youghal, Barry would be gone west, out the western end of Goleen, running like a hare because he is jumping up and down inside here-----

That is the way it is going to be so the Acting Chair had better get used to it.

I thank People Before Profit-Solidarity for bringing forward this motion. I wholeheartedly support its calls for Israel to immediately cease all settlement activity, restore food, water, electricity and medical supplies and remove all other forms of arbitrary restrictions of movement of people that result in collective punishment. I particularly support the motion's call to close Shannon Airport to the US military by banning US military and US military-contracted aircraft from landing at the airport. In terms of meaningful actions that Ireland can take to support the people of Palestine, this is by far the most important.

While munitions flights are officially banned in Irish airspace, it is at the Minister's discretion to grant exemptions to this ban. More than 1,000 such exemptions have been granted this year alone. This is incredibly concerning given that there is evidence that the US is supplying weapons to Israel through third countries. Although the Government has offered assurances that none of these flights have been destined for Israel this year, the Department's answer to a parliamentary question I recently submitted has shown that these flights are not being vetted properly and no inspections are being carried out. If you are not looking, how can you know what is going on.

As the Minister of State may know, nearly 70 TDs and Senators have cosigned a letter from Civil Engagement Group Senators to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, calling for an immediate and indefinite ban on munitions flights where weapons are destined for Israel. With more than 12,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, it is high time that Ireland took a meaningful stand against America's facilitation of Israel's genocide against the Palestinians. A good first step in that regard would be to ban the use of Shannon for military transport.

I thank People Before Profit for bringing this motion to the floor of the House. I welcome the announcement of a possible ceasefire and the release of hostages and for humanitarian aid to get into Gaza. I hope the people of Gaza can find some peace while the Israeli bombardment stops.

Over the past few weeks, we have been watching a genocide unfold before our eyes. More than 14,000 people have been killed, including 5,000 children. More than 1.7 million people have been displaced and one in every 200 residents has been killed in a matter of six weeks. It is mind-blowing. People are distraught watching this unfold in front of their eyes. That is reflected in the mass demonstrations of people here and all over the world.

I support in particular the reference in the motion to the genocide convention. I want to know what the Government will do. The most important thing we can do now is make sure this genocide does not resume. We need overwhelming economic and diplomatic pressure to be put on Israel so that after the four days or so have elapsed, Israel does not start its programme of genocide again. Netanyahu has already stated the terror will start again after any ceasefire.

The Government must take action now. Part of the action, along with the many demands in the motion, is a campaign to hold Israel to the conditions of its trade treaties with the EU. If we do not lead a campaign in Europe to uphold human rights provisions in EU treaties with Israel, then the human rights provisions in any EU treaty are not worth the paper they are written on.

Finally, the use of Shannon Airport by the US military has always been a stain on our history and our neutrality, not just for what is happening now to Palestinians. There should be no foreign military use of any facility in this country. I support the motion in regard to that call in particular.

In relation to Deputy Danny Healy-Rae calling for peace, it is good that we all stand together and call for peace, but we need actions. One of the most specific actions that we could take is to inspect the aeroplanes in Shannon, which we are not doing. It beggars belief that we are taking on trust what President Biden is telling us. In relation to the ceasefire, the same Biden Administration has expressed concern about an unintended consequence of the pause being that it would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel. That is Biden.

I thank People Before Profit for bringing the motion. It is a very comprehensive and rational motion and it sets out actions. We have a four-day ceasefire coming when we need a permanent ceasefire. This country needs to take an active role in that and produce a permanent peace plan with the people of Gaza at the centre of it. To get this four-day humanitarian pause we have had the deaths of 14,100 Palestinians, including 5,600 children and 3,550 women. Every hour in Gaza, 15 people are killed, six of whom are children. It takes a very courageous army to do that - to kill that number of children and to bomb houses and hospitals. That is a very courageous army.

In the occupied West Bank, parallel with Gaza, 219 people, including 50 children, have been killed in the time since 7 October, and more than 2,700 have been injured. All the facts are available from the UN and others.

Along with the war and all the ingredients of genocide there is dehumanisation. This has been going on in our name and is simply appalling and unacceptable. Parallel with this, we have the language of dehumanisation which I will not repeat. However, I will repeat what is being said in our media. People being released by Hamas - which is very welcome - are referred to as "mothers" and "children", but when Palestinian people are referred to they are called "women" and "minors".

Today, for the first time, there is some glimmer of hope, a faint ray of light as there seems to be an agreement between Israel and Hamas for a four-day ceasefire and the release of hostages. Every hostage released and every hour of a ceasefire is a positive. It is not a solution but it is a start and we have to start somewhere. As this process continues every hour of every day must be used to try to find a more long-term solution. We call on the Government to dedicate every ounce of energy and to use every diplomatic lever at its disposal to prolong this four-day ceasefire and secure the release of all the hostages. Right now, that is the most immediate and most important action the State can take .

Regarding other actions, I have written to the European Commission asking that Article 2 of the EU-Israel trade association agreement be invoked. This states that "all the provisions of the Agreement ... shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles, which guides their internal and international policy and constitutes an essential element of this Agreement". It is very clear that this trade agreement is based on respect for human rights. It is crystal clear and beyond question that Israel has flagrantly disregarded this requirement as it conducts an all-out attack on Gaza. It is bombing hospitals, neighbourhoods, UN facilities and killing indiscriminately. More than 13,000 men, women, children and babies have been killed at this stage. Ireland should make a strong complaint to the Commission to ensure that the terms of this trade agreement are adhered to. Israel signed this agreement, as did the EU Commission, which now has a responsibility to enforce its terms and the Irish Government has a huge responsibility to demand that the Commission does so.

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. We have had several debates on the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories in the House in recent weeks. It is clear there is genuine concern on all sides of the Dáil for the situation people in the region are now facing. I very much welcome that a truce, insofar as it goes, has been announced between Israel and Hamas and that some of the hostages held in Gaza will be released. The Government has continually called for a humanitarian ceasefire and for a substantial increase in the provision of aid. It is vital that the people of Gaza now get the basic necessities of life which they so desperately need. The humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip is appalling. We were all shocked by the number of people who have been killed since 7 October. The latest report from the Gaza Health Ministry said that 4,500 Palestinian children have been killed and a further 1,500 are missing. The number is difficult to comprehend. On Monday, 20 November, World Children's Day, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator, Lynn Hastings appealed to the "parties to the conflict to protect Palestinian and Israeli children and their rights". All children in the conflict have to be protected. Sadly this has not been in evidence in the actions of the parties to date.

We have witnessed vast physical destruction in Gaza. Homes, hospitals and vital infrastructure have all been destroyed. This is having a horrifying effect on people, many of whom now have no home and no access to healthcare. Some 1.5 million people are now displaced and need significant support. I welcome that the flow of aid into Gaza has increased in recent days. It is imperative that this continues, so that the level of aid truly reflects the needs of the people of Gaza. Water, food, fuel and medicines are all in very short supply. People are hungry, there is limited access to clean water and hospitals are no longer functioning. The Irish Government has significantly contributed to an increase in aid to the people of Palestine. This dire situation must be alleviated by ensuring that sufficient quantities of supplies reach those who need them.

There is a critical need for a durable humanitarian ceasefire and the Government has reiterated this point at every single available opportunity, including at the European Union and the United Nations. At the extraordinary EU Foreign Affairs Council, which took place on Monday, the Tánaiste repeated this point and briefed his EU counterparts on his recent visit to the region. He is one of a minority of foreign ministers who have been able to visit the region recently. It is not his first time in the region, either. He called on the European Union to focus on urgent calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

The Tánaiste is also engaging with his EU counterparts to discuss the role the EU can play to bring about sustainable peace. While there has been some criticism from the Opposition regarding what the Tánaiste has said and done, I noted Deputy Ó Ríordáin's statement, which by and large was very complimentary of the Government's position. In all international forums, the Government has emphasised that hospitals, medical supplies and civilians must be protected under international humanitarian law. The attacks in recent weeks on hospitals and other essential infrastructure is very concerning. I welcome the progress made in securing a UN Security Council resolution last week, which called for "urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors" and for the release of all hostages. While we in Ireland would certainly like to have seen stronger language, including a call for humanitarian ceasefire, the adoption nonetheless demonstrates that the international community can work together to send a strong message. This is the first time that the UN Security Council has been able to speak on the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories since 2016. It comes after several previous attempts had failed. Importantly, the resolution calls on all parties to refrain from depriving the civilian population in Gaza of basic services and aid.

Last week, the Tánaiste visited Egypt, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. The meetings he had there focused on his call for a humanitarian ceasefire, on the Irish citizens seeking to leave Gaza and on the case of an Irish person taken hostage, nine-year-old Emily Hand. In his meetings with Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian counterparts, the Tánaiste outlined Ireland's commitment to international law and the applicability of international humanitarian law to all parties to the conflict. Truly this was fruitful diplomacy in action.

These rules are not optional and nor are they applicable to only one party. They are fundamental and apply to everybody and all parties in the conflict. The visit of the Tánaiste last week demonstrates the value of maintaining an open channel of diplomatic communication. He has previously been to the region. He was not in Gaza on this occasion but he has visited Gaza in the past. There were some difficulties in securing access to Gaza at the time but he managed to do so. When our citizens need our support and when we need to deliver the messages that matter most to all of us, it is important that we do so openly and in person. In the past week, I have been really pleased to see that many of the Irish people in Gaza who sought to leave have been able to do so. The total number of citizens and their dependants who the Government has been able to help to leave Gaza now stands at 51. Thankfully, many of these people have now arrived back in Ireland. The Government continues to work for Irish citizens who remain in Gaza. It is consistently working with the relevant authorities in instances where they and accompanying dependants wish to leave. I want to thank not only the Tánaiste and his team but also all the officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and the people on the ground engaged in diplomacy every single day of the week in Egypt, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. They are seeking to keep the channels of communication open and to protect and secure the safety of our citizens. They do extraordinary work in very difficult circumstances, particularly in this case

I reiterate the Government's condemnation of the attacks by Hamas on Israel on 7 October. This was a barbaric act which killed 1,200 people, among them young people enjoying a music festival and people in peaceful communities celebrating a holiday. The taking of hostages by Hamas was an act marked by its cruelty. Our position on this is clear. The taking of hostages is a breach of international law and must be condemned and the hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally. I welcome that the deal announced overnight includes the release of some hostages. The Government has been focused on the case of Emily Hand. Last week Emily had her ninth birthday.

The Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the President all met her father, Tom, during his visit to Ireland and the Government has raised her case at the highest level with regional leaders, including the Tánaiste on his visit to the region, which is what we would expect and is what a foreign minister and diplomats do.

We should also bear in mind that, as many have mentioned, the Gaza Strip is only part of the occupied Palestinian territory. The situation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is also deeply concerning. There has been a substantial increase in attacks on Palestinians by Israelis living in illegal settlements. These attacks have resulted in the death and injury of Palestinian civilians, as well as the displacement of Palestinian communities from their homes. This violence must be stopped. Israel, as the occupying power, has an obligation to ensure that civilians are protected and this responsibility must be taken seriously. I call for all instances of settler violence to be properly investigated and for those responsible to be held to account.

Ireland remains a strong supporter of international law and of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. The situation in Palestine is already under investigation by the International Criminal Court prosecutor and the prosecutor has confirmed that this investigation also covers events on and since 7 October. Indeed, the Government has announced that Ireland will make an additional contribution of €3 million to support the work of the court in addition to our annual contribution of €1.4 million.

As we deal with the current devastating crisis before us, it is important that we remember to focus on the long-term political horizon. It is vital that we redouble our efforts to work towards a lasting peace in the region, one which provides security and stability for Israelis and Palestinians alike. It is welcome that the EU and regional partners are engaged in this and understand that we cannot return to the status quo ante. The Palestinians deserve a future which includes their own state. We must continue to work for a future with a two-state solution at its centre, in line with international law. No one is suggesting that this is easy or that difficulties have not been placed in its way, but it is incumbent on us all and on the entire international community to strive to achieve it.

I have to come back on two very obvious, almost glaring, contradictions in what the Minister of State has just said. Both he and the Tánaiste are at pains to create this equivalence by all of the time going on about 7 October and what Israel is doing without, by the way, ever once condemning Israel. There are two pieces that I am going to pull out from what the Minister of State has just said, the first of which is on the hostages.

The Minister of State thinks that under no circumstances should hostages be taken and that it is a terrible thing. There is a lie circulating at the moment, in the lead-up to the ceasefire, and it goes like this: the Palestinians who will be released in the coming hours are convicted terrorists in prison because they tried to murder Israelis, and the Israelis who will be freed are innocent civilians being held hostage by terrorists. Women and minors are being released from prison, where they have been held without charge, without trial, in internment, for God knows how long - for as long as the Israelis want to hold onto them, at their pleasure. That is who is being released for the hostages that Hamas is about to free.

The lie is already sinking in. The Minister of State has almost been guilty of it because he condemns the taking of hostages. When did he condemn the fact that thousands of children and women have been taken hostage by the Israeli state because they fired a stone or dared to stand up to the IDF when their homes were being pulled apart by settlers? Never.

The second issue I want the Minister of State to take on is settler violence. He talked about how awful the settler violence in the West Bank is, and he said it should not happen and that anyone who knows about it should report it. Watch the videos. Watch the news. It is being overseen constantly by the forces of the IDF. They hold back the Palestinians, often arrest and imprison them and sometimes shoot them, and they hold them back to allow the settler violence to take place. They have been the ones gunning down children and innocent people on the streets of Ramallah and across the West Bank. I do not know what planet the Minister of State is living on but I know that these are serious debates that we are having here. We are not messing.

Although all of our motion is important, a serious issue that I want to touch on is the question of Shannon. US troops have been going through Shannon frequently. US warplanes land there but, as has been pointed out, we never use the opportunity to examine those planes or run tests on them to see what is being transported. However, we do know that US military aid has sustained the Israeli state since its foundation and it has passed over billions and billions of dollars, to the tune of $4 billion a year now and rising. The Israeli state would not be able to drop the bombs on the schools, hospitals and refugee camps, smash up people's homes and annihilate the Palestinian people were it not that every bomb and bullet has “US” written all over it. That is another good reason why we should determine that we do not allow Shannon Airport to be used by the biggest army in the world without any discretion whatsoever. It does not care what it does to achieve its geopolitical ends. It will go in and murder and butcher in a barbarous way and assist the Israelis in doing so, and it continues to assist them.

In the course of this tragic last few weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, I have noticed one or two things that have gone under the radar. One of them is not disconnected from the ambition of the industrial-military complex, which is best represented by the US and Israeli armed forces. That is the discovery of 122 trillion cu. m of natural gas and $453 billion worth of oil in the Gaza Sea. On 29 October, the Israeli Government dished out 12 exploration licenses to six different companies, including BP, an Italian company and several US companies, to explore for gas and oil in the Gaza Sea. Of course, the people of Gaza will never benefit from the energy, or the profits and income that come from it, but nobody should benefit from it. What terrifies me is that the geopolitical empire best represented by the US and Israel contemplates going underground and extracting that level of fossil fuel while we are facing the terrifying consequence of the potential of climate change. That, linked with the multiple crises that we are facing in this world today, has really prompted people to be on the side of the Palestinians and to come out against leaders like Micheál Martin, Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden - Genocide Joe, they call him now – because they do not know how to handle the crises we are facing in the world. They are making them worse and they are doing so for geopolitical interests that back up the butchers of Gaza. That is why this motion is important on all its levels, including the question of the use of Shannon.

In the meantime, we are left with serious questions. For example, how do we help families whose people are being butchered in Gaza and who work and live here as Irish citizens? What do we say to a Lord Mayor who invites the Israeli ambassador over to the Mansion House on the day we are supposed to be marking international solidarity with the people of Palestine? Where are your heads at? Can we please get a leadership in this country that will shape how the Irish people feel and reflect it across the world?

We have four days from the commencement of the truce to stop the resumption of the massacre and slaughter that Israel has told us it is going to resume as soon as that truce expires. The question to the Government is what it or the international community are going to do to prevent the resumption of the massacre and slaughter that Netanyahu, his ministers and his military commanders have said they are going to resume against the people of Gaza, which has already cost the lives of 14,000 people, including 6,000 children, and led to the ethnic cleansing of 1.7 million people. What are they going to do about it? We have four days.

The Minister of State has still not come back on the point I made to him and we have had no response from the Government. To repeat, under the genocide convention, the Government has an obligation to do everything to prevent it, not to punish afterwards. The Government keeps going on about the ICC but that is about holding them accountable for crimes committed. The genocide convention requires and obligates states to take all measures to prevent the commission of genocide if they reasonably believe a genocide may take place or if there is incitement towards genocide.

Then we have the deputy speaker of the Israeli Parliament saying "burn Gaza". He said that this week. He said "We are too humane. Burn Gaza ...". Netanyahu described the Gazans as Amalek. This is a reference to the Hebrew bible and the Israelites' injunction to slaughter men, women, children and animals - all of them. It is a biblical reference and everybody in Israel knows what it means. We have Gallant saying the Gazans are "human animals". They have said they will bring only destruction. We have Ben-Gvir on television this week saying the Israelis should not give the Gazans water and that he wanted all of them to get lice. This is sick. We have TV presenters in Israel saying on national television they are going to destroy all the Palestinians, that they are going to come after Lebanon and come after anybody who even shows sympathy with the Palestinians in the West. There is a multitude of evidence from the Israeli military and Government saying they are going to commit genocide. We have evidence of genocide and all the genocide experts, academics, the UN commission and the UN special rapporteur are all saying what we are looking at is an intention to commit genocide and asking what we are going to do about it. Is the Government going to act, as it is required to do, to do everything to deter it? I will just read what the ICJ said on this:

a State’s obligation to prevent, and the corresponding duty to act, arise at the instant that the State learns of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk that genocide will be committed. From that moment onwards, if the State has available to it means likely to have a deterrent effect on those suspected of preparing genocide, or reasonably suspected of harbouring specific intent ... [to commit genocide] it is under a duty to make such use of these means as the circumstances permit.