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Oireachtas
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett speaking in the Dáil this morning.
Gaza
PBP says Ireland has 'blood on our hands' as it tables motion calling for sanctions on Israel
Tabling a countermotion, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said that getting rid of diplomatic channels would not have helped to get Irish citizens out of Gaza.
PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT (PBP) TD Richard Boyd Barrett has said that Ireland has “blood on our hands” over how it has dealt with the conflict in Gaza, as he called on the Government to impose sanctions on Israel to prevent them “committing genocide”.
PBP tabled a lengthy motion on Israel this morning, which calls for sanctions on Israel and for Shannon Airport to be closed to the US military.
The motion makes reference to multiple reports from human rights organisations – including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – which have stated that Israel is guilty of multiple breaches of international law and crimes against humanity in their treatment of Palestinians both in Gaza and the West Bank.
The motion also makes reference to the role of the United States and notes that Israel is “overwhelmingly” dependent on funding and weapons from the United States which has given Israel more military assistance than any other country since the Second World War.
It calls on the Government to publicly recognise the international crimes against humanity, including the crime of apartheid, being committed by Israel against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories – as found in the Amnesty International report: Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians.
It also calls on the Government to close Shannon Airport to the US military immediately by banning US military contracted aircraft from landing there, and to support and advocate for a comprehensive international arms embargo on the state of Israel.
The Government has tabled a countermotion to PBP’s motion, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar saying it is doing so because it omits reference to Hamas and the human rights abuses committed against Israeli citizens.
The motion will be voted on later today.
Speaking in the Dáil this morning, Boyd Barrett said that people will be breathing some sigh of relief due to the “very temporary respite” in the conflict in Gaza following the agreement of a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas.
‘Obligation to prevent genocide’
“I want to 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,” he said.
He said the Government has an obligation under the Genocide Convention to do everything in its power – along with all the 153 signatories to that convention – to “prevent the commission of genocide”.
He said that academics and experts “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”.
“It is not just that Israel has killed 14,000 people, slaughtered them – including 6,000 children; displaced 1.7 million people – ethnically cleansed them in effect 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 – an entire population,” he said.
Government officials, military commanders, and prominent people in the Israeli regime have made clear their genocidal intent.
Boyd Barrett said they have done this by “warning they will cut off food and electricity, by referring to Palestinians as animals, and by talking about things such as erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth”.
“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 – in fact, I will say we have – blood on our hands for our shameful failure to stop this slaughter to date.”
He appealed to the Government “to take the action that is in its power” to impose sanctions on Israel “in order 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”.
Tabling the countermotion, Tánaiste Micheál Martin also welcomed the news of the four-day ceasefire.
“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,” he said.
He said the release of hostages and truce has potential to be an important step towards a de-escalation of the conflict and urged all parties to “prioritise the humanitarian needs of Gaza’s civilian population, extend any ceasefire and find a way to return to the negotiating table”.
Govt has taken ‘principled approach’
Martin said Ireland has taken “a principled, human-centred approach” to the conflict and “rightly stressed the need to protect ordinary people thrust into the front lines of terrible conflict”, adding that he was proud of the Government’s approach.
“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 our 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.”
He said that a small number of Irish citizens remain in Gaza and that Ireland will continue to work with relevant authorities on additional cases where these arise and to assist in instances where other Irish citizens and dependents 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,” he continued.
Getting rid of diplomatic channels would not in any way have helped to get Irish citizens out of Gaza or, indeed, their dependents.
The assistance provided to Irish citizens in Gaza is a practical demonstration of the value of diplomacy in highly challenging circumstances.”
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy accused Martin of participating in “a propaganda tour organised by the Israeli State designed to justify the genocide being inflicted on the people of Gaza” during his visit to the country last week.
“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, more than one in 200 residents have been killed? No, he did not. I will be interested in hearing him explain why he did not visit Gaza,” he said.
Martin said his tour was “not anything of the sort”.
“It was horrific what I saw there, and I only saw the village destroyed and the neighbourhood destroyed,” he said.
“It is not wrong to do that and to visit that area, and your outrageous assertion that that represented a sort of propaganda exercise, I think, is incomprehensible, and shows a complete disregard for the loss of human life in respect of the mass attack on that particular neighbourhood, which I think is informative in itself.”
He said 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”.
It comes after the Taoiseach said last weekend that Shannon Airport is not being used by the US to transport military equipment to Israel “or any war for that matter”.
When asked yesterday by The Journal if he does not believe the Taoiseach when he said Shannon Airport is not being used in such a context, PBP TD Richard Boyd Barrett said that it was the US that he did not trust.
He said as such inspections should be carried out at a minimum at Shannon Airport.
With reporting from Jane Moore
