Richard Boyd Barrett: Pressure Builds for Sanctions on Israel

I just want to thank the people in the gallery for sitting through all of that, and in particular the comments of the government. One thing I think you should know is that the Senior Minister doesn't normally come into these Thursday debates and the reason they did is because of you, because you're here, and because there will be, I hope, tens of thousands of people on the streets again on Saturday, as there has been month in, month out for the last three years because of the slaughter being visited on the Palestinian people. And I hope, after what you've heard today, people will mobilise as well next Wednesday outside the gates of the Dáil when the vote is going to happen. Because we shouldn't give up on putting the pressure, the pressure that brought the Minister in here, because normally the Senior Ministers will not come in for these Thursday debates, right? The Minister came in because of the pressure that you're exerting on them. And this government is under pressure, but the result of that pressure, and I also want to thank Frances again who also sat through all of this, and she sat through a lot over the last ten years or so, listening to promises about how the government were going to progress her bill, and it never, ever happens. And I don't know, I mean, myself and Paul were debating, will the government ever pass it? Or will they just dilute it, pass it, and dilute it to such a point that it has no impact? But that's kind of the space we're in. But the tactic does seem to be to speak out of both sides of your mouth. So there is a bit of the speech which is designed to make it look as if the government is concerned and cares, but the bottom line is, as has already been said, the government will, quote, not be supporting the bill in its current form. So it's not too late, because if you're saying you need a few amendments, don't call the vote now, minister. And the senior minister is gone because at the end of this, the chair will ask, is the bill agreed, the bill to oppose economic sanctions, to break off economic trade and finance relations with the state of Israel because of its involvement in genocide, in apartheid, and in multiple breaches of international law and human rights. And the bill will pass unless the minister says not agreed, just so you know. If he says not agreed, and that's what's going to happen. So for all the 15 or 20 pages of the minister's speech, for all the crocodile tears, the minister, I assume, is going to say not agreed. Because if they don't say that, we move forward towards the imposition of sanctions that we have set out, we believe it is clear from the ICJ rulings in previous cases, the case law around genocide, all signatories of the genocide convention have an obligation to act to prevent and punish the crime of genocide, the worst crime a state can commit, or anybody can commit, the worst crime, and it's been committed. And the Irish government has said they believe, after it took a while, but eventually said they believe it's been committed, and yet they are refusing their obligations to do what is in their power, to impose those sanctions. And let's be absolutely clear, Israel will not stop killing Palestinians, it will not stop its genocidal campaign against them, it will not stop its illegal occupation of their land, it will not stop the brutal siege of Gaza, it will never allow the millions of Palestinians who live in refugee camps in Lebanon, in Syria, all across the Middle East, whose descendants were driven out in the act of ethnic cleansing in 1948, the Nakba, which is the 78th anniversary this year, they will not stop committing those crimes which they have been committing ever since 1948, the state, unless they are stopped. It's clear, surely it's clear, they're not going to stop unless they're stopped. And if we continue to treat them as a normal state, why would they stop? All the evidence is the opposite, all the evidence is, if you give them impunity, they become emboldened, they go further, it gets worse, the genocidal horror doesn't improve being nice to them, doesn't make them a little bit better, they get worse, they are encouraged and they are emboldened by the impunity they've enjoyed. So we are now at a point where there is no crime, no horror, no obscenity, no atrocity that the Israeli regime is not willing to commit and to commit blatantly and flagrantly to crow about the commission of these crimes. I mean some of the stuff is just beyond belief, some of the statements these people have made. I mean the Deputy Speaker, just to give you some examples, in February 2025, all adults in Gaza should be killed and he described all Palestinians as scum. Imagine the last Kean Corla said that about any group, what would we think? But that's what the last Kean Corla of the Knesset said about Palestinians. This is not a normal regime and when you draw a distinction between the occupied territories, oh we accept that's wrong and it most certainly is, to trade with an occupied territory, it's prohibited under international law, prohibited. But who directs the brutal illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza? Who directs it? The state of Israel directs it. Who directed the illegal siege of Gaza that has gone on for 17 years that leads them to even kidnap people bringing humanitarian aid from this country and from around the world on the high seas in international waters? Who directs that? The Israeli state directs it. Who directs the bombardment of Lebanon, the re-occupation of southern Lebanon? The Israeli state does it. Successive governments, not just this government, they've been doing it since 1948. Every single government has done it and the vast vast majority of people in Israel, I'm not saying there isn't a minority who are opposed, but the opinion polls are clear. The vast vast majority of people in the Israeli state support what the Israeli regime is doing and they always have. I lived there. The reason you have to put up with me, Minister, just so you know, in this house is because I went there. I wasn't political. I went there when I was aged 18 and I literally stumbled into the first Palestinian Defada and I was horrified. When I was there, there was no armed resistance by Palestinians. There were young people protesting against the apartheid regime, against the fact that they had been living in refugee camps all of their lives and their families had been driven out in 1948 and they were protesting. They were on the streets. The worst act of violence they were committing were throwing stones at the Israeli military, the fourth most powerful military in the world and they were brutally shot down, beaten down. Armed resistance, the development of Hamas even as an armed wing didn't happen for years after that. It was the brutality of the regime. It wasn't willing to give an inch to the brutal system of apartheid because the Israeli regime had made it clear they want to expand the borders of Israel further. They want to drive the Palestinians. It is genocidal. The intent of the regime is genocidal. Now are we going to do anything about that? Because if we don't, they're not going to stop. And what you're saying is, oh we can't do it unless the European Union says it's okay. And we know Germany is, I mean Germany as we speak, their major provider of arms to the regime committing this genocidal horror. At the moment there's an Irishman, we haven't mentioned Daniel Tatlow-Devalley, an Irish citizen who's been in prison since I think his last September, treated as if he's a terrorist because he took a direct action against Elbit Systems, the main provider of weapons and arms from Germany to Israel to commit the crimes that we've seen in Gaza and so on and he's being treated like a terrorist and he's begging, his family are begging the Irish government to send observers to the trial which is a show trial, it's a travesty, it's a disgrace. But you see the doublespeak is clear. You won't send an observer to that, you won't call for a boycott of the football match and we discovered this week 20 million worth of licenses of technology going to the Israeli military who are carrying out all these atrocities approved by the Irish government and Shannon Airport, US military up to its neck in complicity with Israel providing it all the weapons and weapons going through Irish space allowed by the Irish government. We're up to our necks in complicity, that's why we're doing nothing. But I ask you, you know, pull back, we have an obligation as a former colony to stand with people suffering this sort of genocidal horror and colonial oppression. So end the complicity minister, don't stand up now, don't stand up and say not agreed, do the right thing.