Cuirim fáilte roimh an Tánaiste. Cuirim fáilte roimh an ambassador from Israel, HE Dana Erlich, and Mr. Jeremy Wilmshurst from the British Embassy. They are very welcome this morning to hear these very important statements. Anois glaoim ar an Tánaiste, an Teachta Micheál Martin.
Situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories: Statements
Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach agus cuirim fáilte roimh an deis labhairt leis an Seanad i gcomhthéacs an ábhair ríthábhachtaigh seo. I thank the Cathaoirleach for the opportunity to address the Seanad. I thank Senators for being here for this very important issue.
We all know that these terrible circumstances are of huge interest to this House and to the people of Ireland. The current violence and destruction in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory is appalling. This is the worst escalation of the conflict that we have seen in many years. Already, thousands of lives have been lost. Many more people have been physically injured and untold numbers will carry the pain of grief for the rest of their lives. Ireland will continue to use its voice to call for de-escalation, an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the protection of civilians. I will continue to reaffirm Ireland's long-held position that a two-state solution which brings about a lasting peace is necessary and must be prioritised by the international community.
I would like in particular to express my condolences to the families and friends of Kim Damti and Emily Hand. Last week, I spoke with Kim's family and expressed my deepest sympathies on behalf of the Government and the people of Ireland. I also acknowledge the suffering and grief felt by both the Israeli and Palestinian communities in Ireland. This is not a conflict happening in isolation in another part of the world. Many people here are affected by it and my thoughts are with all of those grieving.
I reiterate my utter condemnation of the brutal terrorist attack by Hamas on the people of Israel. Hamas deliberately and systematically targeted civilians. People seeking to go about their lives in small communities during a holiday and young people enjoying a music festival were brutally killed. These gross atrocities were vile and barbaric. They can never be justified and any attempt to do so is shameful. The action of Hamas in taking hostages is despicable. Hundreds of people are currently being held in the Gaza Strip, among them women and children. It is an act of immense cruelty and I call for their immediate and unconditional release. In the wake of the attack, the Government clearly expressed that Israel has the right to defend itself and its people against Hamas. This right, however, can only be exercised in line with international humanitarian law.
The Palestinian people of Gaza must be distinguished from Hamas, not only on the ground but in rhetoric. It is dangerous and offensive to conflate civilians with an organisation listed as a terror group by the European Union. The strike on al-Ahli hospital was absolutely appalling. Reports suggest that hundreds of patients, staff and those civilians taking shelter there have been killed. The full facts must be established and those responsible must be held to account. Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure constitute a breach of international humanitarian law. There cannot be collective punishment of the entire civilian population in Gaza for the crimes of Hamas. There are now thousands of fatalities in Gaza with thousands more wounded. Vast numbers of people in one of the most densely populated corners of our world are now displaced from their homes. The order given by Israeli authorities last week for more than 1 million people to leave northern Gaza and move to the south of the strip is unworkable and deeply dangerous. Attempts by people to leave in huge numbers have led to civilian casualties and many of those people left behind are now vulnerable and in peril.
The situation in the Gaza Strip is very alarming.
People have limited access to water, food and electricity. We have seen reports of hospitals running out of power. UN Secretary General Guterres has reminded the international community that even wars have rules. No one gets to choose in what circumstances international humanitarian law applies. It applies in all conflicts to all actors and, at its core, is the principle of the protection of civilians.
In recent days, I have been urging and engaging intensively with my counterparts to address the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. It has been a key focus of my discussions with the EU foreign ministers and the foreign ministers of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, as well as of my engagements with senior UN officials.
I spoke this week to the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini. He warned of the dire situation the people of the Gaza Strip are facing and the need to ensure immediate humanitarian access for essential supplies, such as water and fuel. He said if he could give one message in three words, it would be “Water, water, water.” It is that dire. I extended condolences to him for the UNRWA staff who tragically lost their lives while working to support refugees in Gaza. Ireland has a long history of support for UNRWA. Yesterday, I announced an additional package of €13 million, including €10 million in core funding. This will help them deliver their essential work.
The Government has added Ireland's voice to calls, including that of Secretary General Guterres, for a humanitarian pause or ceasefire. This is needed to establish the humanitarian corridors necessary to meet the most basic needs of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. At the emergency European Council meeting on Tuesday, the Taoiseach raised this with the EU leaders. I will do so with the EU foreign ministers at our meeting on Monday.
I welcome the announcement by President Biden during his visit yesterday that the Rafah crossing will open for humanitarian aid. Of course, we will then seek to enable our citizens in Gaza to come exit the territory via that crossing.
I am also deeply concerned by the current situation in the West Bank. We must not ignore the potential for wider escalation while we are focused on the crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip. The UN reports that more than 60 Palestinians have been killed there since 7 October and we are aware of increased settler violence. Hundreds of people have been evicted from their communities, including members of a Bedouin community whom I met with last month. We must avoid further escalation of violence in the West Bank if we are to prevent this becoming a wider regional conflict.
Last month, I visited Israel, the occupied Palestinian territory and Jordan. I spoke with political leaders, NGOs and community organisations. I met groups working towards increasing contacts between Israelis and Palestinians, focused on contributing to a more peaceful future. They are living in the midst of this terrible conflict and many of them have lost loved ones, friends and colleagues.
Now does not seem like a time when hope for the future can be expressed. However, we know on this island that the resolve to work for peace can be forged in the darkest of days.
A matter of days before the attack by Hamas, Ireland’s ambassador to Israel took part in a March organised by women’s organisations working for peace and reconciliation. Vivian Silver, a leading member of Women Wage Peace who was part of that march, has been missing since Hamas attacked the kibbutz in southern Israel where she lived. She may be among the hostages taken to Gaza. Last week, her son, Yonatan Ziegen, said in an interview “The only way to have safety and to live good lives is with peace. Vengeance is not a strategy.” The courage to send this message to the world in the face of such brutality is extraordinary. We need voices for peace more than ever.
The crisis is grave and there is the risk of potential regional escalation. Avoiding this and protecting civilians is my immediate priority. The Government will continue to work towards de-escalation with the goal always of a just and lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. It is important that messages from the EU and other partners recall our shared position, namely, a two-state solution, not as empty rhetoric, but as a clear and achievable goal. It has long been an Irish foreign policy priority that Israel and a Palestinian state should be able to live side by side in peace and security.
I know the importance the Oireachtas and the Irish people place on this issue. It is a key part of my focus and will remain so. It is time there is a renewed and determined international effort to make peace a reality; it cannot wait any longer.
I welcome the Tánaiste. This issue has gripped all of us for the past two weeks. What we are witnessing in the Middle East and in Israel and Palestine is absolutely appalling, horrific and a black mark on humanity. The deaths of huge numbers of innocent civilians - babies, young children, Holocaust survivors and the elderly – in Israel and Palestine makes for huge grief and sadness across the region and across the globe. It is impacting Palestinians, Israelis and Jewish people everywhere. We see the closure of schools in London and New York and the increase in security for Jewish communities in Ireland as well. There are huge ramifications beyond the Middle East.
The brutal attack by Hamas on Israel on Saturday, 7 October cannot be brushed past or washed over; e cannot simply move on from that. What happened on that date was absolutely barbaric. It is difficult to imagine how one human being could perpetrate such acts of violence on another. I refer, in particular, to the scenes we witnessed involving young babies and children.
It is important to point out that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. It is a terrorist Islamic organisation that is intent on wiping Israel off the map. It is difficult to negotiate with. However, the impact on the Palestinian people in the context of response to what happened has been equally horrific. Thousands have already lost their lives and many are maimed, injured and will grieve forevermore.
The point is well made by many in this House and the Tánaiste that Israel can only act within international law. The rules of war exist to preserve humanity in its darkest days. Even in war we have rules. Israel will have to account for its actions and it made clear that it knows this. It will have to account for its actions and how it retaliates. I appreciate and understand the difficulty. How would we react if somebody invaded Ireland, murdered 1,400 of our citizens and took 200 of our citizens hostage? It is difficult to show restraint in those circumstances but that is what we expect of a democracy and a country that wants to adhere to international law.
I welcome the Tánaiste’s announcement yesterday of €13 million in aid to Palestine to help on the ground. I also welcome the developments that appear to have been brokered by US President Joe Biden to ensure that an aid corridor opens up. This is absolutely crucial.
I utterly condemn the attack on the hospital in Gaza. As the Tánaiste pointed out, it is important that we gather the full facts as to what exactly happened. However, the point has been well made previously that health facilities, doctors, nurses and medical personnel are protected under international law and should never be the target of ammunition.
Ultimately, we want to see a humanitarian ceasefire and we need now to prioritise and focus on getting the basic supplies to people in Gaza – food, water and fuel. I watched footage yesterday of a family in Gaza, some of them Irish citizens, who are trapped there. Ninety of their extended family members and friends are living in one building, with water supplies running low. There are approximately 30 children in that one house. That is the dire situation that those families are in on the ground.
Ultimately, our call from the Seanad and the Oireachtas is for a humanitarian ceasefire, the opening of aid corridors, preservation of innocent civilian lives and a de-escalation in the region. We wish the Tánaiste well in his work in that regard, as well as the EU. It will take all of us – the EU, the US and those in the Middle East – to come together to sit around the table to try to find a solution to this issue.
I also welcome the Tánaiste. I thank him for his careful and knowledgeable stewardship of this issue over recent days.
I, too, express my absolute revulsion at the actions of Hamas in the first instance. We have to call it out for what it is: Hamas is a terrorist organisation.
There should be no equivocation. There is no equivalence between Hamas on the one hand and the State of Israel on the other. We have got to be very clear about that, and unambiguous. By the same token, it is clear that Hamas has little or no regard for the Palestinian people in the way it goes about its business.
That is not to say, though, that Israel does not have a right to protect its borders and its people but, from a very early age, I was taught with every right comes a responsibility. There is a responsibility on Israel to prosecute this particular action in a manner that respects international law and the rules of engagement of war. We need to see a thoroughly investigated independent review of the bombing of that hospital. Many people rushed to judgment on that. Thankfully, the Tánaiste did not and the Government has not. I note some international media organisations in the last number of hours are in reverse-ferret mode in an effort to move back from what they originally decided. Whoever is responsible for that, and if it ultimately is Israel, in my view that is a war crime and those responsible will have to stand before the international courts and answer for that, and there can be no equivocation there either because that is where its responsibility as a state must come to this.
We have to come to a point where there is meaningful engagement. The Tánaiste has continued, and international media kind of scoffed when he was there recently to suggest he is still talking about the two-state solution and there is not much chance of that happening. That is the only way that we will see a long-term resolution and we have got to ensure that.
In the immediate term, though, we have to open up the aid corridors. We have got to get food, water, electricity and fuel supplies into the Gaza Strip. I am sorry I do not have more time.
I have two minutes and I will not hang about.
I commend the Tánaiste on the great work he is doing and the Government on its mature even-handed response to this crisis in the Middle East. The good image of Ireland on the international stage is under scrutiny. In that regard, we are not well served by gratuitous comment from some Irish public figures, whether they be in Europe, Leinster House or more elevated places.
In my two minutes, I would like to put the focus on Hamas, because there has been relatively little conversation in these Houses about Hamas or Hezbollah. Many on the left could not even bring themselves to condemn the Hamas slaughter last week. Some sent mixed signals while testing the political wind. Some ticked the box in a cursory fashion before resuming their unending uninformed attacks on Israel. Many were disgusted to see people outside these gates, megaphones under their oxters, demonstrating against Israel within hours of the Hamas atrocity while the bodies of countless innocent children were still warm and while the fate of Kim Damti and others with Irish connections was still unknown. These individuals preach compassion but they showed themselves up. If anything good comes out of this chaos, it is that the people of Ireland have had their eyes opened at last to the anti-Israel narrative that besmirches the image of this country internationally creating the image, as it does, that we are outliers in Europe on the Middle East question. The supreme irony is that these people would not be allowed to protest in any Middle East country other than Israel. How ridiculous it is to see banners from LGBT groups at the anti-Israel demonstrations. If they attempted to raise such banners where Hamas and its like hold sway, they would be instantly beheaded.
What does Hamas want? We know they do not want peace. They want to destroy Israel and wipe it from the face of the earth. It was not the Israelis who unravelled the Camp David and Oslo Accords. We know in Ireland the futility of violence. We had our own Hamas in Ireland. We had the Provisional IRA here for 30 years bombing and killing women and children indiscriminately, but we had people, such as Hume and Mallon, who were prepared to stand up and bring these gunmen to their senses. Unfortunately, in the Palestinian Authority, I do not see a Mallon or Hume, but I see my party's leader here, the Tánaiste, who is certainly getting the feel of the Irish people right. If Israel makes mistakes we will criticise them, but let us not forget this holocaust of Hamas and let the left wing have the courage to be honest and speak out about it.
I welcome the Tánaiste here today. In respect of what he has said, not one word could I disagree with. I endorse everything he has said 100%.
What has been said by other speakers is equally true. Hamas is an extremist Islamist terrorist organisation. It is not the Palestinian people. It is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. It is dedicated to the reversal of the 1948 expulsions of Arabs and the reintegration of a single Palestinian land. Hamas is backed by Iran in all of this.
What was done the other day was done with calculation. They knew full well when they murdered all of those innocent people at the music festival and in the kibbutz what the reaction would be. They lit a fuse determined to bring about a massive confrontation between the Israeli Government on the one hand and themselves on the other and they knew that it would be played out in the streets and in the lands of the Gaza Strip. All of that was deliberate.
None of us should for one minute think that this was understandable, this was an expression of the deep-seated frustration or this was part of a sense of disappointment that the political process was not proceeding as Hamas wants. Hamas does not want a two-state solution. Hamas has never wanted a two-state solution. Hamas has never accepted that Israel can exist as a state, and let us get that firmly on the record. Nobody in Ireland should ally with or sympathise with Hamas in any shape or form. That is the first point.
The second point is that since this situation has been brought about by Hamas deliberately, it knows what the reaction of the Israeli Government under Benjamin Netanyahu, whose Government has had the cheek to label Members of this House who voted for the Control of Economic Activities (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 as anti-Semitic, is likely to be and what his overreaction is likely to be unless it is tempered by the international community.
I ask this House to contemplate what a land incursion into Gaza and the Gaza Strip can amount to. Where will it start? Where will it go? Will it be only in the northern part, north of the Wadi, or will the Hamas people move south with the rest of the population as the Israeli tanks, planes and soldiers move in on the northern part of Gaza?
What is the aim of it? Is it destruction of the Hamas infrastructure? Are we talking about blowing up the little workshops where rockets are made? Is that the aim of this? Is it to hunt down the people in Hamas themselves, to arrest them, possibly to execute them, to eliminate them or to bring them back to Israel and try them? What is the purpose of that part of the invasion, and when things move south and when the northern part of the Gaza Strip, including Gaza city, is a smouldering ruin, will that be the end of it?
It was interesting to see President Biden warning Israel to learn from the lessons that America did not learn in sufficient time arising out of 9/11. You can make war on terror as rhetoric but you cannot, in fact, on the ground. Afghanistan, Yemen and all such places prove that the rhetoric of saying that one is making war on terror simply does not work. If the aim of the Israeli Government is to eliminate Hamas, it is a justifiable aim if it can be done because if Hamas has done this once, why should Israel let it ever attempt it again, ever take that risk or ever expose its own citizens to ferocity of that kind? I ask it to consider how that can be done without occupation of all of the Gaza Strip, without searching through every concentration of population for the people who are Hamas and for the people who organise Hamas and sorting them out, without sorting the men and the women on one side, to use an old trope, and then setting about trying to ascertain in any pocket of captured civilians who is and who is not their enemy, and who are and who are not the terrorists. Unless some process like that took place right across the Gaza Strip, the idea that one can eliminate a terrorist cell which is driven by such hatred will not work and Gaza will be reduced to nothing in the process.
It was not me who said this; it was an Israeli Government who said that at the end of this process he envisaged that the Gaza Strip would be a tent city.
The next point I will make is that it cannot be the case that one can cut off water, electricity and food from a population of 2.2 million. We have heard that a handful of trucks - 16, 18 or 20 trucks - are to be allowed in per day by the Egyptian Government. What possible effect can that have? What can a handful of trucks of that kind do for 2.2 million people? The other thing that has been said is that none of this must make its way to Hamas. How will they stop water from being given to a Hamas official and ensure it only goes to a Palestinian child whose parents have nothing to do with Hamas? How can that be done?
Realism and rhetoric must meet now. The simple fact is that a massive destructive campaign against the Gaza Strip, the destruction of the apartment blocks, the wiping out of infrastructure and the huge, imposed famine on a group of people will not have any long-term effect at all. On the contrary, it will have exactly the opposite effect of what is being proposed.
To be positive for a second, Ireland supports the two-state solution and that is a position that we have held consistently. We also support the right of Israel to exist as an independent sovereign state within the borders that existed in 1967. We have never deviated from those positions. There is one problem. We have to put our hands on our hearts and ask if we did the right thing. That was in relation to the creeping annexation of the West Bank, which is acquiescence in the right wing of Israeli politics abusing international law to advance its particular agenda.
I say that Ireland has constantly failed to beat the drum - and I use that phrase in terms of diplomacy - against the settlements.
Wrong.
I will finish on this. I see the Tánaiste shaking his head. I remember when this House passed the-----
Tá an t-am caite.
-----settlements Bill, we were foot-tripped in the Dáil and we were foot-tripped here. We were told it was against European law. That was untrue then and it was shameful.
I thank the Senator. An chéad-----
Saying it is creeping annexation is shameful.
The Tánaiste will have a right to reply at the end.
Absolutely shameful.
I call Senator Joe O’Reilly.
At the outset, I welcome the Tánaiste and I thank him for his sure-footed, excellent handling of this sensitive issue. It has been a desperate issue over the past number of days. I will quickly acknowledge the presence of Ambassador Dana Erlich and Jeremy Wilmshurst from the UK embassy, with whom I have picked up a good friendship over the years.
It has become ritualistic, but it is not insincere to say that it is very deep and real for all of us. It has to happen on every occasion that we condemn outright the actions of Hamas. That is not at issue. That is not in question. The atrocities of 7 October stand condemned and are wrong, full stop. There is no question about that. That begs the question about the degree and nature of the response. It is our contention, and we say this in the spirit of friendship and goodwill to our Israeli friends, that it is not humanitarian, right or realistic to talk about moving more than 1 million people down the south when the south does not have the infrastructure and where there is mass overcrowding, etc. That is not a runner. It is not a runner to cut off supplies of food or water. That is a given. We welcome the slight improvement by the agreement to open up a corridor yesterday. It is not enough, but it might well be the beginning of something, and we hope that it is. All we can do in Ireland is push in that direction. Everything has to be in the context of international law and humanitarian principles. Of course - and this has become a very important part of the narrative - all speakers abhor what happened at the hospital. That goes without saying and that will have to be properly investigated.
Having stated and left no ambiguity about our positions, we must now get to the nature of where things are and what the realities are. It is my firm view, as the Tánaiste alluded to, that the Irish position should be firmly in the de-escalation zone. We are and should be in favour of de-escalation, avoiding a regional conflict, avoiding atrocities and avoiding civilian, human and individual deaths. It is in that context that a political process must obviously arise.
Ultimately, a political process will have to arise because, as happens with all conflicts, there will come a day when the conflict will end, but there may be sheer Armageddon in the process, huge loss of life, huge personal trauma, tragedies and a desperate situation. Ultimately, it must end and politics must come in and decide a solution. It is my contention that we in Ireland, as a neutral country with moral authority and high standing in the EU and internationally, should be speaking about a political process immediately. We should be speaking about de-escalation all the time.
We need a humanitarian corridor to be properly opened and we need a ceasefire, talks and political action. The question must arise regarding what happens when the conflict ends and afterwards. As Senator McDowell so eloquently put it, assuming that there is the elimination and eradication of Hamas, what will one do next? There still must be co-existence. The settlements over the years have made a two-state solution progressively more difficult. The situation is complex and there can be no doubt that an accumulation of past actions has contributed to what happened on 7 October, although this is not to say for a moment that it was correct. It is not. We have to look back, but the real thing is to look forward to what happens next.
I think the thesis that Hamas wanted Israel to respond in anger is true. I think it was a strategy. One has to assume that it has an intimate knowledge of Gaza and what is in the underground tunnels. It is a bit simplistic to assume that every member of the Palestinian community will not fight and will leave the fighting to Hamas. That will not be the case. As President Biden obliquely admitted, this could become Israel’s Iraq. This could become a long, horrendous conflict where there is loss of life. I think it is a strategy and it has been thought-out. The risk of regional conflict increases with every atrocity. This therefore needs careful consideration. Truthfully, it needs a political solution. It needs talks.
Ultimately, we in Ireland had to come to the Good Friday Agreement and that should be a world example. We came to the Good Friday Agreement and we have to come to an equivalent here. One could argue - and there will be people watching or observing this who will say this - that this is a utopian, naïve or ridiculous idea in the context. It might be all of those things, but it is never wrong to aim for what is right, to try to save human life or save people from trauma. Every Irish voice from now on should be asking for a de-escalation, to put a political process in place and to put talks in place. Let there be an acknowledgement that wrong has been done. This arises from collective wrongs and it of course is wrong itself. There is a very simplistic but nice saying we all grew up with and that we have all heard, which is “Two wrongs don’t make a right”, and these old, maybe slightly trite sayings still hold value, and they are right.
Two wrongs have never made a right. They do not make a right in this instance either. That must be the thrust of our response. We cannot lose sight of the suffering of the Israeli and Palestinian people. There is significant suffering across the board. Everything to alleviate that suffering on a humanitarian level and every other level must be put in place. Politics must be put working and there must be de-escalation. I sadly watched every analysis of this on television, as did all present. It is such a tragedy, and we are watching it in comfort. I agree with the view that it would be a mistake to allow this to develop into a full-scale. It is important to pull back from the brink now.
I thank the Tánaiste for being here and for his contribution. He has to leave us now to go to a meeting.
We can all agree on the seemingly obvious point that one should not execute people or children to advance a political aim. Slaughter is slaughter, no matter the flag or cause, and be it visited by any group or people on any other group or people in any name. It poisons the room of the peacemaker. My heart went out to the innocent Israelis attending a concert who were cut down and murdered in such a horrendous way. In condemning such barbaric acts, however, sooner or later we must take the next steps. The next step is to look back at underlying causes. On 7 October, I found it difficult to discuss the underlying causes out of respect for those Israelis who were slaughtered. Sooner or later, however, we must go back and look at the underlying causes in order to advance matters and bring about a resolution.
As the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, will recall, a former Taoiseach once described Northern Ireland as a failed political entity. The part of the world we are discussing is a failed political entity. This House debated at length the findings of Amnesty International’s report in spring 2022. The report stated that Israel’s apartheid system against Palestinians is a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity. In an article he wrote at the time, the eminent lawyer Bill Shipsey stated that without looking at the facts and findings of the Amnesty report, the finding of apartheid against the state of Israel would upset many, and so it did. Sooner or later, however, we must address the underlying causes. To the eternal credit of F.W. de Klerk, very late in the day, before he passed away in November 2022, he retracted and apologised for his earlier statement that apartheid was not a crime against humanity. He found peace with himself by being true to himself. It was extremely late in the day, but it is never too late.
After he sat his leaving certificate, the young Bill Shipsey and his friends went off to Israel and spent a happy summer working on a kibbutz. They worked moving irrigation pipes in extensive cotton fields. Each morning, Mr. Shipsey passed what looked like the ruins of a village on top of a hill above the kibbutz. No explanation was forthcoming to the young Mr. Shipsey at the time but, many years later, he realised what he had lived through that summer. He discovered that the land on which the kibbutz operated had been obtained by Palestinian tenants being driven off it in the 1930s and again in 1948. The abandoned and ruined village was one from which residents had been forcibly removed. Some of the descendants of its former residents now live as refugees in the West Bank. Bill Shipsey concluded that had he known that at the time, things would have been very different and he would have adopted a different approach. He finished the article on a note of hope, observing that justice requires change, compromise and a willingness to recognise wrongs. I would add that it also requires honesty and, at times, raw honesty. A peace based on justice must include a willingness to recognise wrongs. Martin Luther King said: "I do not see how we will ever solve the turbulent problem of race confronting our nation until there is an honest confrontation with it and a willing search for the truth and a willingness to ... [discuss] the truth when we discover it."
The search for truth goes hand in hand with long-term peace and reconciliation. We have seen South Africa put its dark past behind it. There will be no resolution in the Middle East, with its grim past being consigned to history, however, until people are true to themselves in a mature, calm and selfless way, show honest leadership and call things out as they are. This requires dialogue. As dialogue cannot take place when people are slaughtering each other, there must to be a pause - it can be a without prejudice pause - and it will then be possible for dialogue to take place.
In the meantime, fundamental rights, such as opening up the humanitarian aid corridors and allowing water to flow - things that any right-thinking people would accept - must be observed. Water is vital for life. Electricity and other energy supplies must be provided. There is a need to realise where we are in this.
America has a significant role to play. I know Ireland is good friends with America, and I am thankful it is not Donald Trump with whom we are dealing. I wish to be constructive, however, and state that President Biden is falling short in this context. He is not perceived as an honest broker. I say that as a person who admires President Biden. I am worried that unless this is resolved, there will be a contagion effect. Unless we get rid of this idea of an eye for an eye, this conflict could have devastating consequences.
The Minister of State is a member of Fianna Fáil, the republican party, and he is a constitutional republican. I know he would like to see a united Ireland by peaceful means. That goal, although it does not seem likely to happen any day soon, is on much safer territory today simply because of the silencing of the bombs and guns. That allows some generations to slowly heal. We have a peace, albeit a precious one, and I am not sure yet whether we are sharing our mutual traditions. We are tolerating each other, however, and are moving in the right direction. Until there is a silencing of the barbaric and murderous campaign, we will not get anywhere in this crisis.
Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. What took place on 7 October was horrendous. We were all shocked and horrified to see what played out across social media. There is no justification whatsoever for what happened. We must, however, be honest that it did not happen in a vacuum. I was in Palestine in 2014 following Operation Protective Edge, when Gaza was bombarded and carpet-bombed by the Israel Defense Forces.
There I witnessed, with my own eyes, humanitarian aid being blocked from going into Gaza. I witnessed trauma packs for young children to deal with the carpet bombing and basic first aid packs not being allowed to travel through to Gaza. Absolutely everybody agrees that Israel has a right to defend itself but I ask everyone in this room, what about Palestine's right to defend itself? What would you do, as a Palestinian person, when the Israel Defence Forces bomb schools, hospitals and UN shelters? What would you do? What do you expect the population of Palestine to feel when the world looks on as the Israel Defense Forces do that and refer to Palestinian people as human animals? While the facts are still being established in regard to the hospital on Tuesday - and we do need a full, independent investigation into what happened - we know that Israel has bombed hospitals in the past. It has done that, so regardless of whether it bombed this particular hospital, we know it has bombed other hospitals.
For too long, the EU has turned a blind eye to the war crimes perpetuated by the State of Israel. The visit of EU Commission President, Ms Ursula von der Leyen, to Israel and her unqualified support for Israel without insisting that international law be upheld has done untold damage to EU cohesion. She certainly did not do that in my name. What we need now are calm heads. We must work together to de-escalate the situation. We must have a unified call for an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages on both sides. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow and those who deliver that aid must be assured of protection. What has happened in the past 12 days must be a line in the sand.
The Irish Government and the EU must work collectively to end the illegal occupation and the apartheid systems that are being imposed upon the Palestinian people. At national level, we must recognise the State of Palestine and progress the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill. It seems that Ireland just wants to appease its EU counterparts and not rock the boat in progressing that legislation but President von der Leyen and the President of the European Parliament, Ms Roberta Metsola, did not have any qualms about EU cohesion when they went off to Tel Aviv and offered unqualified support to the State of Israel and did not demand that it respect international law. What Ireland needs to do now is to send out a very clear message - a line in the sand - that we want a ceasefire, that we recognise the state of Palestine and that we will progress the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill.
Before the start of the Ireland-New Zealand rugby match last Saturday night, there was a minute's silence in the Stade de France. The crowd and the players stood for a minute's silence as a gesture of respect for all those who died. It became the norm across the rugby World Cup and carried with it much symbolism. It was for everyone and it was a condition that it was unconditional. It took place in a stadium in the centre of Paris, a city that has the memory of the Second World War Holocaust of the Jewish people on its streets, the deportations on trains that left that city, alongside the resistance of Parisians to the Nazis.
This week, hundreds of thousands of people across the world marched for peace in Palestine and Israel. It is important for people in that part of the world to know that beyond their borders, in the midst of the cacophony of a deadly war, there are people just like them who are thinking about them and protesting to end the war. Those who believe in peace cannot and will not stay silent. War crimes are happening before our eyes - the deliberate targeting and killing of civilians, the bombing of hospitals, the taking of hostages and collective punishment. These are heinous crimes that have no justification. In the midst of such horror, we need voices for de-escalation and peace but the majority of political leaders around the world lack either the courage or the humanity to do this. Instead, our leaders have, through their words, action and inaction, failed to give voice to the upholding of the most basic principles of international law.
In the absence of leadership elsewhere, Ireland must be a strong voice for all those who suffer as this war rages. However, we must not only help in word but also in deed. I welcome the aid that Ireland is sending. I also welcome the decision of the EU to launch an EU humanitarian aid bridge to Gaza via Egypt. This aid will ease the humanitarian crisis that over 2 million people in Gaza are facing. An end to the Israeli Government's decision to cut off electricity, water and food to the people of Gaza is urgently needed. What is also urgently needed is a ceasefire in the area between the Israeli Government and Hamas. Without such, the inevitable escalation of the conflict will only nullify the effect of any promised aid from ourselves or anyone else. However, the long-term solution to the suffering of countless people in Palestine and Israel does not lie in international aid. We need a route out of this tragic cycle of violence. There is no military solution to the conflict but there is a political solution. The deliberate killing of civilians is unacceptable. It would help immensely if the Irish Government was to recognise the Palestinian state at this point, as agreed by the Dáil, the representatives of our people, many years ago.
I want to conclude my remarks by quoting from an email sent to Members of the Oireachtas by 11-year old Rian Tighe. It reads thus:
Hello my name is Rian and I am a 11 year old boy who is living in Portugal but is Irish and I just want to inform you about the war between Gaza and israel. It is a huge problem at the moment with bombs and thousands of kids dying without anyone doing anything but we can not let this continue. I would love it if you can pressure the government of Israel to agree to a ceasefire with both the countries. Most of the dreams of tiny kids are rapidly decreasing because of this war. There are tiny kids who would love to see people like Messi but all they are doing is looking outside at bombs and tragedy. They should be worried about football, not war. This is an outrage and needs to be fixed.
Wise words from someone so young. Senator O'Sullivan made a point previously regarding rainbow flags being flown at Palestinian protests. There are people in every country and community across the world who are struggling for sexual freedom and freedom from sexual violence, and our solidarity should lie with them. I also want to put on record that the State of Israel has blackmailed queer Palestinian refugees and that is reported as well.
The Minister of State is very welcome. Obviously, the attacks on innocent Israeli citizens have to be condemned by all right-thinking people. I echo this condemnation. However, I am acutely aware that while we sit here debating the correct language to use and the correct diplomatic approach to take, genocide is unfolding before our eyes. Israel's defence minister described the people of Gaza as human animals in order to justify his decision to ignore international law and pursue a policy of collective punishment through the bombardment of civilian and medical infrastructure and the cutting off of all food, water, electricity and power to Gaza. The Israeli Prime Minister's office tweeted that this is a struggle between "the children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle.". This is racist, unhinged, genocidal language which is being expressed publicly. Make no mistake, to me this sounds like the Israeli Government is announcing its intention to commit war crimes and to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip. While we are very sympathetic towards the Israeli families who have lost loved ones, that sympathy should not be used to generate misinformation and to manufacture consent for an unprecedented, brutal assault on a captive civilian population of over 2.5 million people, half of whom are children.
My concern is that powerful politicians in Europe are claiming to speak for us as Europeans. The actions of European Commission President, Ms Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Parliament, Ms Roberta Metsola, are absolutely disgusting and extremely unhelpful. They are aiding and abetting war crimes and acting outside of their mandate.
The ultimate goal of this assault is the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip. Israel has always sought to claim the maximum amount of Palestinian land with the fewest number of Palestinians living on it. It has achieved this historically through massive, indiscriminate violence. In 1948, Zionist militias ethnically cleansed 750,000 people from 522 villages in what is now Israel. They did this by massacring almost the entire population of villages like Deir Yàssin near Jerusalem and Tantura near Haifa and used the ensuing panic to incite Palestinians to flee across the border.
Most Palestinians expected to return in a few weeks and kept their house keys to prove their ownership. They were never allowed to return. Most of the people driven out in 1948 died in refugee camps or were scattered to the four corners of the world. Palestinians call this period the Nakba, which means the catastrophe. Some 80% of the population of Gaza are descendants of these 1948 refugees. Now Israel wants to remove them from historic Palestine permanently. It truly is an atrocity. Israeli bombing is levelling entire Gazan neighbourhoods, mosques, ambulances and the Islamic University of Gaza has been targeted. Entire families are being wiped out and in fact one of our own colleagues here in the Oireachtas has lost ten family members. They are being crushed together in the rubble of what was once their family home. People are writing their names and dates of birth on their hands so that they can be identified if their house is being bombed next. Hospitals are ceasing to function and are running out of medical supplies and power. Staff members are collapsing due to exhaustion and the mental torment they are enduring. Israel is demanding that some entire hospitals evacuate or face bombing, which the World Health Organization has called a death sentence for the people receiving care there.
The massive civilian death toll and the huge amount of disinformation underscores the necessity of a rigorous and expansive International Criminal Court, ICC, investigation. Such an investigation will obviously address the war crimes committed by the Palestinian armed resistance factions as well as those of Israel. It must be noted though that Palestinian activists have been campaigning for this for years and the court has been obstructed and threatened at every step by Israel and the United States. These actions have ground the process to a halt. Both sides of this conflict have committed war crimes but only one side is seeking to impede attempts at investigation and accountability. Soon we may not be able to find out what is going on in Gaza as power shortages and bombardment make the work of the heroic Palestinian journalists reporting on the ground impossible to transmit. Israel is trying to create an information blackout so that they can wage war on the civilians of Gaza with their lies intact and without the eyes of the world on them.
I have to mention the antidemocratic oppression of peaceful Palestinian solidarity demonstrations across Europe. France has banned these demonstrations. Germany is doing the same and young schoolchildren are being reported to the police if they speak about Palestine or wear traditional Palestinian garments. Solidarity is not a crime. World leaders need to be put on notice that the people they represent care about the people of Palestine and will not stand idly by while they are being massacred and displaced. The people marching for Gaza are marching to save lives. That is why I encourage anyone listening to join any protests in their areas which are coming up over the next few weeks.
For years there are those of us who have pleaded with the Government to recognise Israeli apartheid and to take actions to punish it with reasonable and moderate measures like the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill. The arguments against the occupied territories Bill do not stand up. We are told that it would need a money message. I absolutely believe that is not true. The other argument is that it is not compatible with EU law. Let us ask the question: is this Bill compatible with EU law? Allow me just to say this. Trade rules are generally uniform across all EU member states. Exceptions, however, are granted where they can be "justified on grounds of public morality, public policy or public security; the protection of health and life of humans, ...". The legal basis of this Bill and its permissibility under EU law are confirmed by many legal opinions, one of which is from Michael Lynn, a senior counsel in Ireland, and the second is from Professor James Crawford of the University of Cambridge, who was a senior counsel in the UK and was one of the most eminent authorities on international law worldwide. I would like to see the Attorney General's legal opinion on this as soon as possible and would like it to be published because it is vital now that we pass the occupied territories Bill and let us argue against the argument which the Government is putting. I call for that today.
If Ireland acts others will follow. The illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory are a war crime and are one of the biggest barriers to a just and lasting peace. Ireland cannot continue to be complicit in a violation of international law and of Palestinian sovereignty and territorial integrity. We must stop the slaughter in Gaza and we must work for a free Palestine. As Nelson Mandela once said: "...our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.".
It is against the backdrop of an unfolding humanitarian horror in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories that we are here today. Ireland was among the first to clearly come out to say that Israel could not act and respond outside of the remit of international law, when the initial response from the EU was to cut off aid to Palestine and the misjudged and outrageous visit of Ursula von der Leyen, giving licence to Israel to effectively respond however it wanted to.
The motions presented by the Government in this House and in the Dáil yesterday, while not containing everything we wanted, were significantly more balanced than what we saw presented last week. I was glad to see last night Dáil Éireann speaking with a semi-coherent voice. That will allow our Government, speaking on behalf of us all, to take a human rights-based ethical position within the EU 27, which is where our voice needs to be strongest because now is the time to bring Israel back from the brink and not allow the Netanyahu government to indulge its worst instincts.
The 7 October attack was designed to provoke and a right-wing intransigent government reacted as was expected. Years of othering and of dehumanising the Palestinian people allowed it, without shame or seemingly consequences, to indicate it was prepared to flatten Gaza, an area with 1 million people, half of whom are children. We need to be clear that there can be no collective punishments of the citizens of Palestine for the actions of Hamas. There can be no space for the deliberate breaking of international law, for carpet bombing, the targeting of civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, or the starving of people of food, water and electricity, which is basic infrastructure we need to survive.
Among the information overload, the armchair munitions experts and the disinformation of the fog of war, one thing is very clear from the images we see coming from Gaza. Civilians are being targeted. Innocent children are terrified and these are powerful images we are seeing. It is a scar on our humanity. There will always be spin among combatants but we have called for the ICC to investigate the hospital bombing. It is important that the Government pushes that at an EU level now.
The international community has reached a crossroads in its dealings with Israel. Israel can no longer act without consequences, which we would not tolerate from any other state actor. We have been here before, trying to temper the worst instincts of despotic leaders while watching them commiting war crimes before our very eyes. We watched and allowed this to happen in the Balkans in the early 1990s and we cannot allow it to happen now.
This year we celebrated 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement which has saved thousands of lives. That process was not easy and it still is not easy but running parallel to our peace process at the time was a very similar peace process in the Middle East. Some 25 years later our peace is not perfect but it is significantly advanced. In the Middle East, however, the peace seems even more distant and the events of the past couple of weeks could lead to a contagion among the countries of the Middle East, when we are already watching horrors which still emerge daily from Syria.
I put that down in large part to the intransigence of the Israeli Government which created Hamas and the shift to the right we have seen happening in Israel over the past 20 years. We need the Government to be operating with one voice in the EU 27 because that is where our power is and that is what can stop and pull Israel back from the brink of what it has been threatening over the past number of weeks.
I start by welcoming ambassador H.E. Dana Erlich and Jeremy Wilmshurst from the British Embassy who are here in our Gallery to witness this very important debate and the range of views across the House. Like everyone, I am devastated at the scale of human suffering since 7 October. We have all been looking at appalling images on our television screens, on our phones and in our newspapers. The brutal act of terrorism perpetrated by Hamas on innocent Israelis shocked the world and, as the Tánaiste outlined, it is the worst escalation of conflict in recent years in this region of the world. This was the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and the methods employed by Hamas are the same as the methods of the Nazis.
We cannot underestimate the impact of this brutal and devastating day on the psyches of every Israeli and Jewish person around the world. I am thinking, in particular, of the Jewish community in Ireland. We cannot move past that day too quickly. We need to absorb the full scale of the horror. We must condemn, without any conditions, Hamas and its slaughter of innocent people. It was absolutely devastating and I extend my sympathies to every Israeli and Palestinian person living in Ireland. As has been outlined, many of them have lost family members and friends in the appalling conflict we have seen. It was not legitimate resistance, as I have said. Hamas is an Islamic terrorist organisation. We think particularly of the two Irish girls, Kim Damti and Emily Hand, who were slaughtered on that particular day.
I am disturbed and kept awake at night by the fate of the hostages. We need to be very mindful of them. We know of 199 hostages. I am holding a picture of Kfir, who is a nine-month-old Israeli boy. He is a hostage. I have a picture of an entire family who have been taken hostage. They are Tal, Adi, Naveh and Yahel. The two kids are aged eight and three. They are hostages and we do not know where they are. I also have a picture of a mum and her two daughters, Doron, Aviv and Raz, a four-year-old, a two-year-old and their 34-year-old mum, who are hostages. Mia, a young girl, is also a hostage. We must think about them and keep them in all our thoughts. Thomas Hand outlined that when he was informed his daughter, his little eight-year-old girl, had died, he was happy she was not a hostage. He knows what happens to Israeli hostages in Gaza. I am sure the vast majority of Palestinian people are appalled and horrified by the techniques employed by Hamas, but those hostages need to be returned immediately, without condition and without any harm. I am sorry I do not have more time. I wanted to talk about those hostages. Before we can move the situation on, they need to come home.
I send our condolences to the families of Kim Damti and Emily Hand. I think of the families of our Oireachtas colleagues who are working in Palestine and offer condolences to all who have lost family members and friends. The date 10/7 is our new 9/11. The horrific events in New York at that time were the result of a very deliberate and long-planned campaign and so were the events of 7 October. That day should be forever etched in our souls as the collapse of humanity. Every one of us must absolutely and unequivocally condemn the horrific actions of Hamas.
We have all seen the harrowing media reports. We have all seen, on our phones and screens and in our newspapers, the awful photographs and have read the awful stories from families on both sides of the conflict. I commend the Tánaiste on the measured approach he has taken to this hugely complex geopolitical issue. The €13 million in aid that was announced yesterday is important, significant and welcome.
We regularly debate political issues in this House, issues of importance to our country and to the world, but this is on a different scale. There have been atrocities on both sides. Innocent young people at a music festival were shot. Apartment blocks have been wiped out. Civilian infrastructure has been targeted. Water, electricity and basic provisions have been cut off. These are horrific, inhumane actions on both sides. As John Hume said:
Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace – respect for diversity.
John Hume was rarely wrong. In this, he was never more right. We absolutely must call for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to reach those now in desperate need in Gaza. We need humanitarian corridors and the release of hostages immediately and unconditionally. We in the international community have a role to play. We must work urgently to de-escalate the situation.
We will all agree the history of our island is quite complex. Many people around the world would not be able to fully and accurately describe and attest to the intricacies of our own history, even over the past 30 years, going back to our independence, the Civil War or, indeed, the plantations, which had such an enormous impact on our history. Likewise, I am not going to pretend to be an expert on the situation in the Middle East and the intricacies in that part of the world. I will leave that to the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is the expert on the stance of our island.
I condemn unreservedly the attack by Hamas on 7 October. I also condemn indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians by Hamas in Israel and any retaliation by Israel on innocent civilians. I unequivocally condemn the taking of hostages by Hamas and the impact that must have on their families. Senator Clifford-Lee reported the testimony of the Israeli man who preferred the news that his beloved daughter was dead rather than being held as a hostage.
I agree about the absolute necessity of a humanitarian corridor and the importance of water. I was struck when I went out half an hour ago during the debate to get a cup of water by the importance of water in everybody's lives and how restrictions on that in parts of the world, especially now in Gaza, are a travesty.
I also commend the balanced comments by the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach and Ministers on this difficult situation. I condemn the loss of innocent life throughout recent days and over the history of conflict in that part of the world.
I will read a small letter handwritten by a lady I know and whom I would describe as a lady of peace. She did not ask me to read it out but I am going to do so anyway. She writes that she hopes I am well. The letter asks me to do all I can to encourage all our political leaders to help defend and aid the unfortunate people of Gaza. It goes on to state that the awful atrocities by Hamas are not the fault of the poor, oppressed, long-suffering people of Gaza. Palestine as a whole is not to blame for Israeli grabbing and settling of the West Bank illegally and in spite of international law, not to mention countless appalling incursions, bombings, indiscriminate impoverishment, denial of human rights, indiscriminate sniping and killing and bombardment by the evil Israel Defense Forces. She states that, unfortunately, this attack by evil Hamas has bolstered the power of Netanyahu, which is increasingly being denounced by decent people in Israel. She signs off the letter with best wishes.
Those are the words of one person about a complex part of the world. I have never been in Palestine or Israel and I am not going to pretend to know what it is like to live there, what it has been like in recent days and weeks and in all the other periods of conflict in recent years, including 2014. I grew up on this island and do not even pretend to know what it was like to have lived in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland. I lived in Galway. I have a friend in Monaghan who reminds me that I am not as aware of things as he is, living in Border country. He is more attuned to the intricacies on this island.
I encourage a de-escalation of the situation in Palestine and Israel. I encourage restraint. I do not know exactly what it is like on both sides, what those people are going through and the danger of what they will go through in the coming weeks and months. I hope for peace and the protection of innocent life.