Joe O'Reilly demands arms embargo, calls events 'genocide'

Welcome Minister, and could I acknowledge the fact that the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Deputy La Harte, has been at most of this debate, and as I serve on that committee it is good that he is taking the matter so seriously. I want to just briefly acknowledge the tarnish that as a politician who from day one has been strong on this issue, and is not a newcomer to it, can I just say that this is a story of depravity, it is a story of inhuman activity, it is unquestionably genocide with 55,000 dead by the 14th of May, last, it is complicity in famine with the 80 day blockade on aid. It is so bad that future generations will open-mouthedly and aghast ask us where we stood and what did we do. It is involving the demolition of homes, of hospitals, of schools, of infrastructure. The displacement of persons from the complete displacement of people. And sadly, as I mentioned displacement, and it was referenced earlier, we have the prospect of 22 new settlements on the West Bank, which is a horror, and could slip through very handily in the midst of this and not be noticed. This is an assault on women and children predominantly, and this is an aspect that needs to be remembered. Women and children are at the forefront of suffering here, and none more than that extraordinary case of the doctor who lost her nine children. It is shocking that we have the looting and the food sitting on the trains, and that the humanitarian aid is in trucks, including Irish aid, and not getting in. Now the question arises, what do we do? And at this point, I want to acknowledge, and it would be churlish not to acknowledge, the extraordinary pioneering work of our good colleague, Senator Frances Black, in this area, since for us, over a number of years. We must acknowledge that, and we should salute her in that. So we should, and we are now, implementing the Occupied Territories Bill. We should not go into recess this summer until that is implemented. We should, there has been a late conversion by countries like France, England, Germany, within the EU. We should be at the forefront of keeping the momentum to that late conversion. We should be out there in the EU, pushing for that to continue. We should be strongly against the arms going into Italy, or into Israel. In other words, an embargo on the arms has to take place. At this stage, there is no equivocation around that. There is no counterargument. You cannot have a counterargument given what is happening there. So we need to be taking these actions on a regular basis, or on an immediate front footing now. And I am asking when the Minister responds, and I know that the Minister is active on these things, that he will state clearly that we are going to act on all these fronts. It is a multi-faceted approach. It is the Occupied Territory Bill. It is the embargo on arms. It is a call for the ceasefire. It is the getting the aid in. It is supporting the new EU initiatives and pushing for more there. And there is a self-interest here, and this is a tragic reality. We are giving rise, and we will be horrified when it happens, but we are creating the conditions for a new generation of suicide bombers here. Let's have no illusions that a 15 or a 16-year-old child who sees their family obliterated, their home obliterated, their people displaced, that child, if they are intelligent and bright, is a potential, tragically, it is a wrong response, but it is the response we will have. We will have suicide bombers, and relations of ours, generations back or down, will walk along Trafalgar Square, or Shanzelisi, or Dublin, or wherever, or Germany, and unfortunately may be victims. But this is coming, and there is a self-interest here. But that is not the reason to do it, but it is a by-product that we are going to have. And let's get one misnomer out of the way here. In taking strong action here, and we have to take strong action, there is not a shred of anti-Semitism in this. The people who are horrified by Gaza today, and the potential in the West Bank of the 22 settlements proposed, those people are similarly horrified by anti-Semitism, and horrified by October 7. And the last thing I will say, and it is on the excellent speech by Senator McDougall, he is right, Israel did create these conditions over a number of years, they did feed into this situation, with settlements, with support of Hamas, and unfortunately this is the tragic outcome. And action is needed now, and I look forward to the Minister outlining a programme of actions here. Thank you.