2026-05-14

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I start by welcoming the many people who have come into the Gallery this evening to observe this debate. They are people who have been marching and protesting in some cases for decades or many years. Members of the Palestinian community are here to observe this and see how the Government is going to respond to it. I commend the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other groups like Sadaka, which are here and have been campaigning for many years on the issue of solidarity with Palestine against the crimes being committed against the people of Palestine by the Israeli regime. Although this Bill was proposed by People Before Profit, I thank Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats and, hopefully, others, who have already pledged support for this Bill. I give special thanks to Senator Frances Black who is also here and of course has been campaigning to get her Bill passed, looking for sanctions on trade with the illegally occupied Palestinian territories. The Government promised in the programme for Government it would be implemented but it still has not implemented it. We will probably talk about it more. However, despite the commitments given by the Government, there is a clear statement that it is now diluting that Bill. Many of us frankly have doubts that it has any intention of passing it at all despite the promise in the programme for Government that it would do so. Our Bill is saying that under the Genocide Convention, the Rome Statute against apartheid, international law generally and our commitment to international law and human rights we have an obligation to impose sanctions on the State of Israel because it is in violation of those legal commitments. We are asking, if this Bill is passed, which we hope the Government will agreed to, is that we should all break off all economic, trade and financial relations with the State of Israel because of the crimes we believe it is guilty of. They are genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, collective punishment of Palestinian people and the systematic, ongoing, decades long violation of the most basic human and civil rights of the Palestinian people. We are morally and legally obliged to impose sanctions and we need to end the treatment of Israel as a normal state and recognise that it is a rogue pariah state. If that were not clear before the events of the past three years, it is surely obvious now. The Israeli regime is not a normal regime. It has revealed itself in the past three years as a depraved murder machine hell-bent on a genocidal campaign of annihilation and mass murder against the Palestinian people. That is what it is. Such a regime in our view has no place in the community of civilised nations and in the international community and should be isolated economically and in every other way as happened with apartheid South Africa. Because of the resistance of black South Africans and the solidarity of people across the world, it was finally acknowledged that an apartheid regime like South Africa had no right to exist and be treated as a normal state, and that regime had to be dismantled. Surely, we are beyond the point now where that is clear about the Israeli regime. We have seen in the past three years the genocidal slaughter of more than 75,000 people in Gaza, the levelling of Gaza, the destruction of all the schools, most of the housing, the infrastructure, the hospitals and the mass murder of men, women and children. That continues despite the claim that there is a ceasefire. While all of that is going on, we see the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the West Bank. We see again the assaults and reoccupation of parts of Lebanon and the mass murder of Lebanese people. We see the attacks on Iran. This is a death machine. It is obvious that is the case, and that the people presiding over it are criminals. Netanyahu, Gallant, Smotrich, Ben-Gvir are sick, sick people. When the minister of a government gets a present of a noose for his birthday to celebrate their plan to execute Palestinians, and they celebrate that for their birthday, you understand you are dealing with sick, depraved people. This is the mentality that is driving the Israeli State. Of course, all of this predates the current events. What we have seen in the past three years is the logical conclusion of the genocidal character of the Israeli State but its crimes predate the events of October 2023. I want to quote something written in 2021. I could quote many human rights organisations but I will just quote one because the impunity granted to Israel is what has led us to the genocidal horror we have seen. This was documented by many organisations, but I will cite one, namely Human Rights Watch, and a report it produced in 2021. The report in question states that 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. It also states that the international community has contributed to undermining the international legal order and has emboldened Israel to continue to perpetrating crimes with impunity. Human Rights Watch accuses some states of actively supporting Israel's violations by supplying it with arms, equipment and other tools to perpetrate crimes under international law and providing diplomatic cover, including at the United Nations Security Council, to shield it from accountability. It states that by doing so, these states have completely failed the Palestinian people and only exacerbated Palestinians' lived experience as people with lesser rights and inferior status to Jewish Israelis. That was just one human rights organisation in 2021. How prophetic are its words. Decades of impunity have been granted by the international community, by the UN Security Council and by this country. That impunity has now led to the horror we have seen over the past three years. There was the failure to pass Senator Black’s Bill, which was instigated in 2018. How many times did we stand up in this House and how many times did people take to the streets - long before 2023 - to plead with successive Governments to impose sanctions? How many times did we plead with those in government to raise the EU-Israel association agreement? This grants favoured trade status and is effectively associate membership of the European Union. Israel still enjoys this after the genocide and horror that has been imposed on the people of Gaza and there has been not a single, solitary sanction. I will be interested to hear what the Minister is going to say about the next matter I am about to raise. I do not know if people are aware of it, but it is absolutely shocking. This week, because of a fight by The Currency, which, according to the journalist Niall Sargent took 12 months, we discovered that in 2024 the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment approved licences to the value of €20 million for exports from this country to the Israeli military. That was a surge in the value of such exports in the previous year, €12 million, when the genocidal assault on Gaza began. In the years before that, it was only €1 million, although that is too much, or €85,000 in another year. In 2023, however, when the genocidal assault on Gaza began, the figure jumped. In 2024, it went up to €20 million. This is the Government signing off on licences to allow exports of goods to the Israeli military while it was committing these crimes. In the case of 2024, this was after South Africa had already initiated the case before the ICJ in respect of the genocide, which the Government later joined, although it had to be pushed to do so. We already had a ruling from the ICJ in January 2024 to the effect there was a plausible case of genocide being committed against the Palestinian people. Following that, the Government granted licences to export dual-use technology to the Israeli military that is carrying out the genocidal massacre. That is absolutely appalling. I will conclude by reminding the Government what our obligations are under the Genocide Convention. I want to quote the ICJ ruling on the Bosnian genocide. It states: ...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. Thus, even if there is a suspicion of genocide the signatories to the Genocide Convention are supposed to act. I will not have time to quote it but the judgment goes on to state that even if a state does not think it will have a massive impact, it should do anything in its power to try to deter, prevent or impact on the capacity of the state committing the genocide. It also states that such action should be taken. Despite that, this State has not imposed a single sanction. Not one. Spain and Slovenia have. Other European states are still sending the Israelis arms and weapons and it is just deplorable. These are signatories to the Genocide Convention, which was put together, let us remind ourselves, after the Holocaust on the basis that "Never again" meant not just that we would punish a genocide after the fact but that we would try to ensure it never happens again. Despite this, we have allowed three and a half years of this genocide, although, as we all know, there have been decades of ethnic cleansing. The entire Israeli state has been based from the beginning on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. There have been decades of ethnic cleansing and decades of illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory. For 20 years now, there has been a siege of Gaza, which is a collective punishment of its people and which, according to the UN had, even before October 2023, reduced it to a state of permanent humanitarian crisis. And then there is what has happened since. There have been no sanctions despite our obligations. It is criminal. I will finish with something I said earlier. I never, ever quote Éamon de Valera because I have nothing good to say about him. Now, however, I will because in 1935, Éamon de Valera instigated sanctions against Italy because it was engaged in a genocidal assault that claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Ethiopians. His Government imposed sanctions because it felt it was Ireland's duty as a former colony to impose sanctions on Italy for committing genocide against people in Africa. Surely this Government can do as well as Eamon de Valera and impose sanctions on the genocidal State of Israel.

Across Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, civilians are living through devastation, fear and displacement on a scale that should shock the conscience of the world. Families are burying children. Communities are being destroyed. Humanitarian conditions are catastrophic. We know this and I think we all agree on this. While international attention has shifted in recent weeks towards the broader regional crisis involving Iran, I want to say clearly that Palestine will not be pushed aside and will not be forgotten. The suffering of the Palestinian people is not secondary to other geopolitical events. It must remain at the centre of international attention and international action. I have advocated for this at every Council meeting I have attended since being appointed in November. We know there is no meaningful peace in Gaza and no real ceasefire in Lebanon while civilians continue to live under threat and violence continues. We urgently need de-escalation, diplomacy and a path towards a lasting political solution, not temporary pauses that leave civilians trapped in fear and insecurity. Ireland remains deeply concerned about the conflicts across the Middle East and Gulf region. I continue to follow developments closely, but importantly I remain in close contact with EU and regional partners in responding to this crisis. I raised these issues directly again this week at the foreign affairs Council in Brussels. I spoke at length about the situation in Palestine and the urgent need for Europe to act with greater resolve. Ireland’s position has been consistent and clear. I believe, as we all do, that Palestinians have the right to live in dignity, freedom and security in their own state. I believe Israelis and Palestinians both deserve peace and safety and I believe international law must apply equally to all states, in all circumstances. That principle guides my approach and that of the Government to this conflict and to the measures I will outline. Ireland’s position since the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been steadfast. We remain committed to working with key partners to end the conflict in Gaza, advance a sustainable peace plan and, most importantly, address the immense challenges facing Palestinians in Gaza and the wider implications for regional stability and security. I remain committed to supporting a unitary Palestinian state consisting of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. I remain committed as well to achieving a just and lasting peace where Israelis and Palestinians live side by side in two states, Israel and Palestine, in peace, security and dignity within the agreed borders. I have spoken directly with my Palestinian counterpart many times in recent weeks again and assured her of Ireland’s full support for the Palestinian people and for the implementation of the two-state solution. Since taking office, I have also taken a number of concrete actions which I will outline today. Although the ceasefire agreement reached in October 2025 offered a moment of hope and relief, the reality for civilians in Gaza remains unbearable. Since that agreement began, 834 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and more than 2,300 injured in ongoing Israeli military operations. Those are not just numbers. We know they are children, parents, families and entire communities whose lives have been shattered. The humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated even further since the outbreak of the conflict involving Iran. Border closures have intensified these already desperate conditions. One crossing remains the sole operational entry point for aid and commercial supplies, creating severe bottlenecks that continue to limit deliveries and deepen shortages. I saw this in my visit to the region at the beginning of the year. Today, the people of Gaza continue to endure unimaginable suffering. Access to water, healthcare and shelter remains wholly inadequate. Diseases linked to overcrowding and poor living conditions are rife. None of us who hear these stories of parents trying to shield their children from rats and infestation can remain untouched by the horror of what is unfolding. We are all feeling this and want to do everything we can to support them. Behind every statistic are human beings trying to survive and get through another day. I do not believe anybody can look at the humanitarian situation and conclude that the international response has been adequate. It has not. This is why I and the Government have consistently called for unrestricted humanitarian access into and throughout Gaza. Israel must immediately remove restrictions on aid access and facilitate the delivery of essential supplies and services throughout Gaza, notwithstanding the wider regional security situation. All crossings must be reopened. When I travelled to Rafah earlier this year, my first bilateral visit in this role, I saw first-hand the scale of the suffering and the urgency of the need. Most importantly, I spoke to those engaging on the ground, doing a job there and who have lost colleagues in this conflict who were simply trying to help and protect those who need our help the most. That visit and those conversations and engagement that I had have stayed with me and reinforced my belief that we need to do everything we can collectively. We need a more unified and stronger response from Europe. It has reinforced my determination that we must speak clearly and act concretely but we need more happening at a European level. During that visit, I announced the Government will provide €42 million in assistance to the people of Palestine who urgently need that support. In particular, it will be ensured that funding is provided to organisations like UNRWA, the Palestinian Authority and many important organisations on the ground. I have also remained focused on the extremely serious situation in the West Bank. We all know that this continues to deteriorate rapidly. Israeli military operations have caused widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and homes. At least 40,000 people have been displaced since January 2025. The scale, speed and severity of displacement and demolitions are unprecedented and continues in an atmosphere of impunity. Settlement expansion, forced displacement and settler violence have accelerated dramatically. Entire Palestinian communities are being pushed from their homes while extremist violence continues with impunity. In recent weeks, the Israeli security cabinet approved 34 new settlements in the West Bank, the largest number approved at one time by any Israeli Government. This represents a vast 78% increase in the total number of settlements. These are not isolated developments. They form part of an established pattern designed to create a new status quo in the occupied Palestinian territory. Let us call this what it is: these actions consistently contravene international law. I agree with the Deputy on this. We are not disagreeing on any of this. These actions threaten the viability of the two-state solution altogether, a solution that we absolutely support. The Israeli Parliament also passed a Bill on 30 March mandating death by hanging as the default punishment for West Bank residents convicted of terrorist acts by military courts. I utterly condemn this law passed by the Israeli Parliament expanding the scope of the death penalty and reviving its implementation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. We oppose the death penalty in all cases and in all circumstances. The right to life is absolutely fundamental and universal. We are all particularly concerned by the discriminatory nature of this legislation as it relates to Palestinians. I fully understand, and I share, the depth of feeling of many people in Ireland, in this House and in the Gallery about the ongoing suffering in Palestine. People want to see action. They want to see accountability. They want to know that international law still matters and that civilian lives matter equally. This is why I want to explain clearly, despite sharing many of the concerns that motivate this Bill, that I do not believe this legislation is the most effective or legally sustainable path forward. The Bill before the House would, in practice, amount to a blanket prohibition on trade in all goods, and certain services, between Ireland and Israel. In effect, it amounts to a boycott, divestment and sanctions approach with respect to Israel. The Government does not support that approach, although we fully recognise the right of individuals and organisations to make their own decisions in this regard. We do not operate a unilateral domestic sanctions regime. Instead, Ireland implements EU sanctions and UN sanctions through the EU framework. This Bill would amount to a blanket ban without any exemptions or derogations. It is well understood that EU sanctions regimes are designed carefully to avoid and mitigate unintended consequences, including consequences for civilian populations and access to essential goods such as food, medicines and emergency supplies. Again, this Bill would amount to a blanket ban without exemptions for any of these elements. There are important reasons, therefore, that this approach has not generally been taken in modern sanctions regimes relating to other conflicts, and the Government does not believe that it is the right approach here. I and this Government believe that the strongest and most impactful route remains co-ordination at EU level, particularly in relation to the Israeli settlements and trade connected to the occupied Palestinian territories. This is an area where Ireland has shown leadership. I have repeatedly argued for stronger action, including sanctions on extremist settlers, restrictions relating to illegal settlements and the suspension of trade provisions under the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Earlier this week, EU member states reached political agreement at our Foreign Affairs Council to sanction Israeli extremist settlers, entities and those enabling violence in the West Bank. I appreciate that step was overdue but it matters. On 18 April, Ireland, alongside Spain and Slovenia, wrote to the High Representative, Kaja Kallas, again expressing deep concern regarding Israeli Government actions and calling for urgent discussion of the association agreement. Ahead of that discussion, I was clear in calling for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The EU’s review of the agreement in 2025 found Israel to be in clear breach of its obligations. That situation continues, and that is why, with my colleagues from Spain and Slovenia, we wrote to ensure that this matter was raised at the Council and that we would make progress and take action on it. At the Foreign Affairs Council this week, I again called on EU partners to suspend the trade-related provisions of the agreement. Europe still needs to go further, however, and we will continue to press for further action, because if the international community continues to issue statements without consequences, the credibility of international law for all of us is weakened. The House will recall that on 19 July 2024, the International Court of Justice, ICJ, delivered its advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israeli policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territory - a case in which Ireland, alongside more than 50 other states, made written and oral submissions. Since then, Ireland has continued to push for meaningful action at EU level, including restrictions on trade connected to illegal settlements. At this week’s Foreign Affairs Council, I and others again called on the European Commission to bring forward proposals ahead of the June Council meeting, with a view to taking a vote on this issue. It would not just be a vote to ban or suspend the trade element of the EU-Israel Association Agreement but a vote with a view to banning trade with the occupied territories. In Brussels this week, a growing number of member states either joined this call, sought a vote or expressed a readiness to consider such a proposal. This is the first time I have seen this in the number of Councils that I have attended. Again, I appreciate that it is far beyond time for this to happen but it matters and it is progress. We need to continue, and I will continue to progress and to press for this approach. Ireland has also consistently underlined the important distinction between the State of Israel and Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law and are not recognised as part of Israel by the European Union, its member states and the overwhelming majority of UN member states. This distinction, again, is important. At the same time, Ireland will continue to take action domestically. Here at home, work is continuing on the commitment in the programme for Government to progress legislation prohibiting the importation of goods from occupied Palestinian territories following the ICJ advisory opinion. In June 2025, last summer, the Government approved the general scheme of the Israeli Settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (prohibition of importation of goods) Bill 2025. The Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade subsequently held hearings, received submissions and represented a broad range of perspectives, all of which were then fed to me and my Department and Government. The primary purpose of that legislation is to prohibit the importation into Ireland of goods originating in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. I thank Senator Black for her work in this regard and for her continued engagement with the Government. Legally, the regulation of services is significantly more complex at an EU level than the regulation of goods. That is why I have been engaging with the Attorney General who has provided detailed and extensive advice on whether the inclusion of services would be permissible but also on how we would progress this legislation more broadly. We have sought clarification on a number of different elements of this legislation. We need to make sure that anything we introduce is legally robust and capable of withstanding challenge but also that we can advance our broader policy objectives effectively. What I and the Government have always said is that where we work with member states, with colleagues together, we are stronger. I am engaging closely with my Dutch, Spanish, Slovenian and Belgian Government colleagues regarding their own approaches. Other governments are now moving on legislation. I remain absolutely committed to taking meaningful action in response to breaches of international law, international humanitarian law and human rights. I remain convinced that action at EU level will ultimately have the greatest impact. We need to make sure that what we are going has an impact, that it changes the behaviour of the Israeli Government and above all, that it brings peace and solutions for those in Gaza and the West Bank and for Palestine more broadly. I want to be clear that I distinguish between the actions of the current Israeli Government and the Israeli people. Ireland's goal has always been to focus on peace, security and dignity for both Palestinians and Israelis. This is a goal shared by many Israeli citizens themselves. Our own history on this island teaches us of the danger of division, dehumanisation and endless cycles of violence. It also teaches us the importance of political courage and international support in building peace. This month marks two years since Ireland recognised the State of Palestine alongside Spain and Norway and later joined by Slovenia. I remain convinced that recognition was the right decision. It was taken against the backdrop of an intolerable humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, the shrinking space for Palestinian life in the West Bank and the urgent need for injecting fresh momentum into efforts towards a just and lasting peace. At the time some argued it would make no difference but I disagreed then and continue to disagree now. Since that decision, international momentum behind Palestinian recognition has grown significantly, including across Europe. We have tried consistently to show leadership, not just in words but in action and to that effect, in January, following my visit to the region, I hosted a meeting of the global alliance for the implementation of the two-state solution, where Ireland shared lessons from our own peace process with regional partners and other states committed to peace. We will continue in that regard. Finally, we must make sure our measures are effective, legally sound and capable of building broader international support. Nobody should mistake my opposition or the Government's opposition to this Bill for silence or indifference. I will continue to press for stronger international action and to advocate for accountability. I am committed to progressing the occupied territories Bill and will continue to speak clearly about the unbearable suffering being endured by civilians in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon because Palestine is being overlooked. The world cannot allow this suffering to become normalised.

I am sorry but I do not believe that the Minister is committed to progressing the occupied territories Bill; I just do not. She said, quite rightly, that it was June 2025 when it went through pre-legislative scrutiny. It is now May 2026 and there is no sign of it. Deputy Boyd Barrett, Deputy Gibney and I, and others, ask every Thursday at the Oireachtas Business Committee about the occupied territories Bill but there is no answer. We get silence or "we do not know". We know where the Government's emphasis lies because the Minister betrayed it in her speech, copies of which were sent around. It actually states where the "clip starts", which presumably is an instruction to her social media team, and where the "clip ends". The emphasis from this speech, which will go out, is on co-ordination at EU level. Co-ordination at an EU level is important but we have an opportunity to do things domestically on our own. The Bill, introduced by Senator Black eight years ago is that measure but the Government is not supporting it. I have no doubt that the Minister has mothballed that legislation. I am enraged that we are in this situation. I recall the honeyed words of the Tánaiste when he was Minister for foreign affairs and sitting in that very seat. He took to his feet in the debate over the flotilla and said that not only would he progress the occupied territories Bill, but he would do so by November 2025. That is what he said on the Dáil record. He made a promise, a promise that has been broken. That promise was in the programme for Government and was made to the people of Ireland before the last election. It carried across the water and across the continent to the Palestinian people. They knew that this Bill, if it was passed, would probably not save one life but it was a tangible symbol. Other states in Europe have gone ahead of us and actually delivered, including Spain and Slovenia. We are becoming a laggard in our support for Palestine. What is the threshold for action against Israel? More than 75,000 people have died in Gaza in the past three years, 2,800 have died in Lebanon since March and more than 1,000 have died in the West Bank with the continued expansion of the illegal settlements. What is the threshold? Is it because Israel is a white, western economy that it is getting away with this exceptionalism? If it was any other ethnicity or any other place in the world, it would be sanctioned beyond existence at this point. There is no other state that is as roguish, illegal or horrific as the Israeli state has been over the past number of years, if not decades. A new law was brought in by the Knesset in March, which the Minister referenced in her speech, permitting hanging and the death penalty. Israel has not carried out a judicial death sentence since 1962. It has carried out many killings, as we know, but it has not carried out a judicial death sentence since 1962. The United Nations is absolutely appalled by this law. I have not seen such strong language in a UN document. It states: ...the Knesset approved a bill ... Israel has not carried out executions nor imposed death sentences since 1962. This new legislation not only marks a significant regression: it also does so by imposing capital punishment on de facto ethnic or national grounds and by diluting basic legal safeguards. It is the worst of the worst. This is where the State is at. Where are we this week? We have boycotted the Eurovision. That is the right thing to do but it is a very, very small measure. That competition is still going ahead. Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people are going to watch it and the vast majority of European nations are still taking part. We have a football match coming up in the autumn. That cannot happen. That has to stop. We have to go belt and braces on sanctioning Israel. There is no other state in my lifetime or in any of our lifetimes that has acted with such impunity, so illegally or so grotesquely in carrying out genocide. There are measures that we can take. Sadaka launched a document this week, "Beyond Words", the most aptly named document because words is all that we have given from this Chamber and from this Government to the people of Palestine. We have not delivered any action. Sadaka sets out, in a fantastic document, well-referenced actions that we can take without having to go through collective EU sanctions because that, in essence, is a cop-out. We know the veto powers of the EU. EU states will not support any actions against Israel but we can do things here in terms of sanctions, visas, military and civilian flights, and dual-use technologies. We can do that now. We can support this Bill. This is a strong, robust Bill. It is the kind of Bill that meets, in so far as we can, the devastation that has been caused by Israel. We must support it. I am beyond frustrated. I am enraged and angered and so let down. The one thing that we could have done in the short lifetime of this Government was to bring Senator Black's Bill, or at least the spirit of that Bill, into some form of legislation. This Government has abandoned it.

I have said we will progress it.

No, I am sorry.

We will----

I am sorry but until I see the Minister standing there delivering a Second Stage speech on that Bill, I will believe in my heart that it has been abandoned because that is how it feels.

The Minister's speech really encapsulates the cynicism of the Government on the issue of Palestine. The written copies of her speech include, in two places, references to the start and end of media clips. It is the first time I have seen that. It encapsulates the Government's approach. One of the clips includes the Minister talking about all the good stuff the Government is going to do at a European level and how hopeful she is about the things happening at EU level. The clip ends with a statement that the Government cannot support this Bill in its current form. However, there is no need to worry: nobody should mistake opposition to this Bill for silence or indifference. I do not think the Government is going to be silent in any case. It is part of its approach that we will keep getting lots of words. Ministers have no problem giving us words. What the Government has a problem with is action, and any action at that. The Government is in a difficult political position. On the one hand are people like those in the Gallery and the tens of thousands who have come out again and again to protest for Palestine. That massive public support for Palestine is one side of it. On the other side is the Government's increasing integration into US imperialism, its connection with and reliance on US multinationals and, therefore, the massive pressure on it not to do anything to upset Donald Trump and US capitalism. The Government has tried to untie that Gordian knot by deciding on a strategy of rhetoric without action. It will call what is happening genocide, which is very good and very important, and it will condemn and speak out about it. In effect, however, it will refuse to do anything. That is why eight years have passed without any progress on Senator Black's occupied territories Bill. The Minister tells us she is committed to progressing the Bill. That is a joke and everyone knows it is a joke. She cannot stand there and ensure us the Bill will come through when she has devoted her energies to watering it down, slowing it down and, in my view, trying to block it. That is being done entirely against the wishes of the all-party foreign affairs committee, which has said it needs to be enacted quickly and to include both trade and services. It is being done against the vote of the Dáil. Last year, the motion we brought forward on the occupied territories Bill was passed unanimously by the House. The Dáil voted for the Bill to be enacted by last Christmas and to include provision for goods and services. The Minister has used her position not to progress the Bill but to delay it. The Government has supposedly been conducting an examination for two years into illegal flights through our airspace conveying weapons to be used by the Israel Defense Forces. I put down a parliamentary question about the progress of that examination every few months. It is apparently still ongoing and the Minister cannot tell me when it might end. The strategy of the Government is words without actions. Before us this evening is a proposal for meaningful action but the Minister says it would amount to boycott, divestment and sanctions on the State of Israel. To this I say, "Yes, that is precisely what we need". How can anyone say that a state that is committing genocide, a state that is built on apartheid, forcible ethnic cleansing and throwing people out of their land, should not be boycotted, divested from and sanctioned? I return to a point Deputy Boyd Barrett made. This strategy of words without actions is getting the Government into a very significant legal problem. It has a problem because it chose to use a particular, strong word, which we pushed it for a long time to use and which we welcomed. I refer to the Government's formal statement that Israel is committing genocide. The Taoiseach first formally stated that in May 2025. The Minister cannot say she does not know Israel is committing genocide, because the Government has declared that Israel is committing genocide. We do not live in a world in which, legally, noticing that someone is committing genocide does not mean anything. It is meant to mean something and the Government is meant to do something about it. The International Court of Justice in the Bosnian genocide case stated, "A State's obligation to prevent, and the corresponding duty to act [not just to say words but 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." We were well beyond that point by May 2025 because the Government had stated not just that it suspected genocide was happening or may be happening but that genocide was happening. Article I of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide states, "[G]enocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law, which they [states that are party to the convention, which includes Ireland] undertake to prevent and to punish." Article V states, "The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention." Why did the State recognise genocide and do precisely nothing to prevent and punish that crime? Worse than that, it acted to delay and vote against legislation designed to prevent and punish that crime. If the Minister knows Israel is committing genocide and she opposes Bills that are proposed to try to pressure on Israel to stop the genocide that is ongoing, what does that make her and the other members of the Government? It makes them complicit in genocide. A former Minister, Paschal Donohoe, was deeply offended by anyone saying that. He thought it was a very bad thing to say someone is complicit in genocide, but how else does the Government want it to be spun? If Ministers know a genocide is happening but are against taking action to try to stop it, then what else are they other than complicit? The other argument the Government makes is that it is, in effect, illegal for us to act unilaterally against Israel and that every action must be taken collectively by the EU. That is simply not true. Last October, the Parliament of the Spanish state passed into law a total arms embargo against Israel. It permanently banned the sale to Israel of all weapons, military equipment and, crucially, dual-use technology in response to the genocide in Gaza. That law formalises a de facto ban that had been in operation since Israel's genocidal war against the Palestinian people began in October 2023. We can contrast that with the position of the Government and all its fine words. Yesterday, The Currency website revealed that the Department of enterprise approved €20 million in dual-use exports, that is, exports that could be used for military purposes, not just to Israel but specifically to the IDF and the Israeli Ministry of Defense. This was happening in 2024 at the height of Israel's genocidal slaughter of the Palestinians. That was revealed in heavily redacted freedom of information documents that cover up what the dual-use items were for. I heard Deputy Barry Ward on the radio earlier trying to suggest that this was perhaps some sort of HR software for the IDF. All the redactions mean we have no idea whether that is accurate. Perhaps the Minister can tell us what the goods were and which companies were exporting them to the IDF. Even if we grant that Deputy Ward is correct that this was HR software and not any product that would be used in weaponry and so on, why would the IDF be buying extra HR software during the slaughter of Palestinians in 2024? Maybe it was because it needed to expand its payroll because it was paying many more soldiers to shoot innocent children in the head, blow up whole families in apartment blocks, bomb hospitals and ambulances in double-tap attacks, leave babies to die in ICUs, and rape and torture political prisoners. That is what the IDF does. Any goods being sent to the IDF are used for those purposes. That is what it was doing on a daily basis in 2024 and it is still what it is doing today despite the so-called ceasefire. The FOI documents show a belated development of conscience in 2025, with the start of the blocking of dual-use exports to the IDF. That inexcusable hesitation in taking action to prevent genocide as it was happening in front of our eyes shows we cannot trust the Government to comply with complicated trade rules and regulations. We need to take away all discretion from this cowardly, double-speaking Government and put into law a clear ban on all trade with Israel, just like the Government was forced to do when it banned trade with apartheid South Africa. There can be no more room for equivocation or delay. I have a question for the Minister. The Government allowed a conscience vote yesterday on the Social Democrats' Bill on abortion rights. Why can it not allow a conscience vote on the question of genocide? Of all the issues of conscience in the world, surely it should allow its own backbench TDs to decide whether they want to do something to stop this genocide or to go along with the Government's complicity in genocide. Surely they should be allowed that choice. I ask Government TDs and those who support the Government not to hide behind any of the misleading waffle Ministers like to use about legal technicalities and so on but instead to examine their conscience. They know there is a genocide happening. Do they think we should be trading with this genocidal apartheid state or that it is time for Ireland to do whatever we can to try to stop it?

We heard fine words from the Minister but Ireland's involvement and support for Palestine, on which she and the Government self-congratulate themselves, are but an embarrassing drop in the ocean of what is needed. The Government has been kicking around the occupied territories Bill and looking concerned for eight years. The silent tuts and concerned frown lines which come up when atrocities happen will not cut it; sanctions will. I thank the bold Deputy Boyd Barrett for introducing this Bill. Tomorrow will mark the 78th anniversary of the Nakba catastrophe, 78 years of forced displacement that is continuous and ongoing. Some 66% of the Palestinian people are refugees following three years of genocide, multiple crimes and blatant breaches of international law. Israel has never been held accountable for its historical crimes or its more recent crimes against humanity. Indeed, the genocidal slaughter of more than 75,000 people, with hundreds of thousands seriously injured, and the levelling of Gaza, seem to be a natural progression of Israel's war crimes, as the world looks on and allows the Israeli regime to work faster towards its ultimate goal of stealing the maximum amount of Palestinian land without the Palestinians. It is doing the same now in Lebanon and beyond. The machine is operating at full throttle. I will make a few points about more recent occurrences. A couple of days ago, in The New York Times, a journalist wrote about the sexual violence and rape of men, women and children in Israeli prisons. The world remains silent on this, allowing impunity to the bully, the murderous Netanyahu, who has taken a leaf out of the book of his friend, the other bully, Trump, by suing The New York Times. The columnist in question is the respected and renowned Nicholas Kristoff. Our solidarity goes to him. Regarding the soft influence of the Eurovision, how the hell did Israel get into the Eurovision? It confounds me. Maybe I do not understand it. Israelis are not Europeans. Eurovision is a musical whitewash. I do not often praise RTÉ but fair play to it for doing its public service and acting in accordance with the public's intuition that this is not on. The AI Israel is using to influence votes costs hundreds of thousands of euro and is skewing the vote. What is Israel doing in Europe in the first place? I guess Zionists are delighted with Europe's inaction, grovelling and meekness, which is further damaging the strength of the European Union. On sportswashing, UEFA and football, the majority of Irish people do not want the games in September, either home or away in Israel, to take place. Imagine playing alongside soldiers when some of them have murdered your teammates. Some 500 Palestinian footballers have been murdered, as have some of their families. Imagine the atmosphere on the ground. Sport is supposedly not political; it is political. We need to stop these games and act on what the majority of the Irish people feel. I cannot imagine standing beside someone who is guilty of genocide against my people, my family, and my teammates. Ireland will have the EU Presidency. I wonder if we could use it to influence sanctions and stand firm for humanity, as otherwise we are all lost.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire, who happens to be the target today. This is not aimed at the Minister personally, but the fine, well-meaning words she read out are hollow. Genocide is happening as we speak and has been happening for a long time. There has been no proper action which the Israeli state will pay heed to. It has ignored every supposed protestation by the Irish Government and other European Governments. We need to take action, which is one reason the Bill is before the House today. It is not the only reason, however. This Government and previous Governments have failed miserably to take action over the years as the Israeli state flouted international law. In 2004, I asked a simple question of then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen. I asked whether he would use the EU Presidency to propose a suspension of preferential trade with Israel on the basis of persistent and systematic human rights violations. Here we are, 22 years later, and I am still appealing to the Government to ensure the EU does exactly what it says in the tin. Any preferential trade agreement or neighbourhood agreement with Israel, or, for that matter, any other country that is abusing international norms and human rights or engaged in slaughter and genocide, should be suspended immediately. Sanctions then need to be imposed where that continues. We have not done that. The EU was very quick to jump through hoops to impose sanctions on Russia. Israel's slaughter has been a lot worse than what Russia has done in Ukraine. That is not to say the Russians are right in any way. We were right to impose sanctions on Russia but we would be right to impose sanctions on Israel. It should have been done a long time ago. If this Government and other European Governments had paid heed to the calls made 20 years ago, maybe, God willing, Israel's ongoing slaughter in Gaza and Palestine, Lebanon and Iran would not have happened. Governments did not do so, however. By ignoring the rules in place in those trade agreements, rather than imposing those rules and suspending the agreements, we sent out a message to Israel that it is okay to carry on as it is not going to be punished. Israel was not punished and is still not being punished. There is still nobody in the EU, other than those countries that have had the strength to stand up and impose sanctions, punishing Israel for what it is doing in Palestine. We need to look at what we can do here in Ireland. We need to have cultural, university and sporting boycotts of Israel. I will come back to some of those in a minute. The University of Galway needs to cut its links to the Technion Institute of Technology, the university that refers to itself as a research and development wing of the IDF. What in God's name is any Irish university doing having any types of links with an Israeli university in this day and age, especially given that university's links with the IDF? Let us not forget the University of Galway is a public body. It needs to cut all ties with Israel. The message should go out, not just from the Opposition benches but from the Government, that all universities should cut ties with those involved in genocide. It is pure and simple. This week, I published a Bill, titled the Comptroller and Auditor General (Due Diligence Complicity Audit) (Amendment) Bill 2026, to give effect to our obligations under international law to audit all of our cultural, diplomatic, economic, financial, political and military relations with Israel to ensure we are not contributing or otherwise assisting Israel's serious violations of international law. That Bill needs to be passed. I should not need to come in here to move it; this should have been a given. The Government should have immediately acted on that. This is not a call by me; it is a call by international lawyers and the International Criminal Court. They are the duties we have when we know a genocide is happening, yet it is the likes of me, Deputy Boyd Barrett or Senator Black and others who are continually trying to appeal to the Government through legislation, questions and other debates to do the right thing, to stand up and be counted. The Government has not even joined the Hague Group which is also taking action. Ireland has not stood up, as Spain has stood up, yet it goes around the world saying how great we are in terms of Palestine. Yes, we are better than some other countries but we are a lot worse than others because we have identified the issues and the stances we can take, yet the Government has failed to take them and that is on the Minister. That is why we need to take the actions in this Bill and other Bills. We need to be seen to act, not just talk, because by the time the European Union will act, the Palestinian people will be flung to the far corners of the world. That is the intention of the Israelis. They intend the clearances, as happened in Scotland and parts of Ireland. They want to ensure there is no Palestinian population left in Palestine. That is the intention. We have seen and heard it. We have seen the maps and the actions of the Israeli Government and we need to stand up and stand on the right side of this. We need to stand up and be counted and stand against the genocide that is happening in Palestine, and of late in Lebanon. We need to ensure those involved in those actions are punished correctly. It is appropriate that this is the eve of the anniversary of the Nakba. We need to ensure we will not stand by and allow Israel to slaughter all around it and exile and displace hundreds of thousands or millions more Palestinians. We should stand proud. There are brilliant people in civil society in Ireland who have taken action, who are marching day in and day out, picketing and organising events and meetings, but they have been let down by the Government, which has made promises and has not lived up to those promises. I hope people will join us again this Saturday in Dublin at 1 p.m. at another march to mark Nakba day and stand in solidarity with those who have endured the slaughter by the Israelis, not only in recent years, but for generations at this stage. I support this Bill. I support the intentions of the BDS movement. We need to act and there should be no prevarication on this.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Boyd Barrett as ucht an Bhille seo a chur os comhair na Dála. We are here on the 78th anniversary of the Nakba. I have just come from the audiovisual room where I met Lubnah Shomali, who reminded those on the left in these Houses that our demands are far too moderate and that we should be looking for the world. In May 2024, Ireland finally formally recognised the State of Palestine. Then Taoiseach, Deputy Harris, said then that a two-state solution was the only way for Israel and Palestine to live side by side in peace and security. The Minister said the same earlier in her lovely flowery speech, but the killing and maiming of innocent Palestinians has not stopped since then. Men, women and children are still being murdered and families are still being wiped out. The so-called peace deal ultimately has become political cover for the State of Israel as it continues with its genocidal campaign in Gaza and the West Bank. According to ACLED, which tracks Israeli attacks in Gaza, Israel has escalated its attacks in Gaza since it stopped its bombing campaign in Iran. A total of 120 people have been killed since 8 April, 13 of whom were children. Still the international community responds with statements, hand wringing or silence. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael love to tell us all about what they are doing for the people of Palestine and how deeply they care. Certainly, the recognition of Palestine two years ago was welcome. It was overdue, but it was welcome. However, it came far too late. I had a Palestinian family with me who said they felt some kind of healing, and after they had escaped the war in Gaza, I felt it was not my place to take any of that healing away from them. What has the Government done since then? Recognition without action is meaningless. While Israel has continued to do what it pleases, acting with complete impunity in Gaza, Ireland, along with the rest of the international community, has stood by and allowed it to continue. It is precisely that silence that has emboldened the Israelis. Our silence has consequences. Silence lets them know they can get away with their most evil deeds. Our silence tells them that international law is optional for them, that no consequences will come from their actions, that they can bomb refugee camps, starve civilians, flatten hospitals and schools and still maintain normal diplomatic and economic relationships with Europe. When there are no consequences for their war crimes in Gaza, why would they fear consequences for bombing Iran or invading Lebanon, levelling villages in south Lebanon to resemble Gaza, or attacking UN peacekeepers, including our own? The passing of this Bill would be a strong stance for Ireland to take on the international stage to tell the world Ireland will not be complicit. It would be a demonstration to other nations that individual countries in the EU can and must stand with the people of Palestine. It would impose a series of comprehensive and lawful sanctions on Israel for its continued flagrant violations of international law. International law is clear. It places clear obligations on third states not to aid, assist or maintain economic relations that sustain serious violations of international law, including genocide, apartheid and illegal occupation. Ireland and other states have legal and moral obligations to act. When will we finally stand up and meaningfully punish this sort of behaviour? The Opposition has repeatedly put forward measures of real substance. Every week we see on our email of Dáil business for the following week that Sinn Féin and the Opposition are opposed to the absence of the occupied territories Bill. It still has not been enacted. Deputy Brady's Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill has still not been enacted. Today we have People Before Profit's Sanctions against the State of Israel Bill 2025. These are not just symbolic actions, they are Bills with real teeth. The Irish public overwhelmingly supports sanctions on Israel and meaningful action in solidarity with Palestine, yet the Government continues to stall, delay and hide behind pathetic excuses. I do not care if there is an issue with the Bill. I really do not care if we end up upsetting trading partners. I really do not care about the Government's pathetic excuses. This is the Government's legacy. It will forever be known as the Irish Government that sat on its hands during an on-screen genocide. It will go down in the history books - history books our grandchildren will read - as a Government that chose cowardice over courage, a Government that mastered the word salad of sympathy while refusing to take the action real sympathy would demand. The Minister gave us another helping of the word salad today. It is spineless. The Government cannot stand up to its colleagues in Europe and speak up for what is right. It has failed the Palestinian people, and the Irish people because the Irish people do not like this. I take absolutely no pleasure in telling the Minister that.

I welcome, on behalf of Solidarity, this Bill. It is the first Bill to advocate for sanctions against Israel. What has happened to Palestine and what is now happening to Lebanon and other countries Israel is attacking is an absolute shame on the EU and world leaders. What an indictment of the EU that, almost three years into a horrific genocide, not only does it not sanction Israel, it continues to give Israel a favoured trade status. What an indictment of capitalism generally that household name companies we all know and were brought up on are directly complicit in the killing and genocide of the Palestinian people. I always wondered as a child when I read about Nazi Germany how Braun and all these companies managed to operate, but I am seeing it now writ large. People say, "What would you do if you were in Nazi Germany?" It is whatever you are doing right now - that is the answer. What the Minister is doing on behalf of the Irish Government is absolutely nothing for the Palestinian people. I take issue with stating it is just words - there are funds as well. Every time we stand up here and ask the Taoiseach or the Minister, or whoever is the foreign affairs Minister, about our stance and our inaction for Palestine, we get a mantra of all the different funds the Government is delivering. They would not need the funds if the genocide was not happening. It is just pathetic. It is guilt money at this point. The Minister says she thinks action at EU level is best, so can we not do anything until we get overall action by the EU? If that is what she is saying, it is extremely unlikely that will ever happen because of big powers like Germany, France, Italy and other countries who will veto that. It is a recipe for inaction. There is nothing stopping the Government acting alone. Slovenia and Spain, the countries Ireland was working with to get the resolution recently, have brought in similar occupied territories legislation. What is so special about Ireland? I think we all know what is special about Ireland. Ireland is now the second biggest trader with Israel. The US is number one, China is number three and Ireland is number two. What is the reason for that? Intel - one major company that the IDA bent over backwards to get into this country in the 1990s. The Government does not want to upset Intel; that is why it is not taking on this Bill. Some €3 billion of the €3.2 billion seem to be directly related to the electronic components, circuits and assemblies for the Intel operation with Israel - another company directly complicit in the genocide. The Government has a very difficult job because it has to walk a tightrope of publicly supporting Palestine but taking absolutely no action to upset the multinational companies it is in thrall to. As was said earlier, Ireland's only action is the Eurovision, which was taken by RTÉ and not by the Government, by the way. Even a football match - get a grip here. A football match is not at all important. Even then the Government does not have the moral backbone to say it should not happen. Three thousand fans will come here from Israel, a team directly complicit and involved with the IDF. The women's team wear IDF jerseys for publicity stunts - absolutely dripping in blood, racism against Arabs and violence and they have breached all the rules of UEFA and FIFA but that is fine, business as usual. And the Minister tells us she cares about the genocide. Bertie Ahern has been in the news this week for despicable racism. He has a rotten record and has been named in tribunals. Is it not gas that we are citing Bertie Ahern for taking action to prevent the Yugoslav team coming here during the Balkan wars in the 1990s? Because the Serbs attacked the Bosnians, he did not issue visas. Charlie Haughey was a similar character. He told the IRFU the game was up, literally, in terms of going to apartheid South Africa. The political leadership now has not even got the gumption to do that; they represent nothing when you break it down. We have to cite these people, not because they are good, but because the present leadership is so bad. The fact Ireland looks good internationally is because the rest are so rotten. I want to mention the occupied territories Bill. I spoke on this already. It must be exhausting for the Minister to come up with all these reasons it cannot be passed, especially since Slovenia and Spain have done it. She said initially it was her political priority, then had to walk it back. In February, she said it should be okay. Here we are in May and we all know it will not be passed before the summer and we will go into another delaying tactic. It must be exhausting for her. On Shannon and flights - and this is since the Minister came into the role - there was a 56% surge in US and military overflights last month as the US launched its attacks on Iraq.

Iran.

Iran, sorry. Iraq could be next; anyone could be next. The Minister sees no connection between the two events, of course. Academic links have been mentioned. I absolutely agree. The Minister came out and criticised people for trying to break academic links; however, they are not academic links. Tecnium is a laboratory for weapons for the Israeli genocide in the aerospace and engineering arena. The Minister said she does not believe in BDS and clearly she does not. How else does she propose Israel is to be isolated? She certainly supported it in the case of Russia. People from the Palestine Solidarity Movement are in the Gallery. Ordinary people from all around the country, all genders, all nationalities, all races, all generations. It has been the most powerful and inspiring movement in the world over the past three years because it is an antidote to the rotten racism, militarism and hate that is being peddled. If it did not exist, the Palestinian people would be in an even worse situation than they are now. Unfortunately, it has not stopped the genocide. We have lacked workers' action to do that. We have two focal points now. The national march on Sunday should be huge. I appeal to everybody to attend it. We also have the potential to shut down the Ireland-Israel football match in October.

Hear, hear.

Just to make it clear, there are actually two matches. Many of us are saying "Stop the game" but it should be "Stop the games". I got an email back from Brian Kerr when I contacted him in relation to this and he made the point, which a lot of us are not emphasising, that we should not be playing Israel anywhere. We should not have anything to do with them. How can the Minister not see that? That was one solitary thing she could have done. We have to rely yet again on the ordinary people of this country to mobilise and stop that match. If it is not stopped beforehand, we have to gather and prevent it happening that day. I am confident we can do that because there are public meetings taking place around the country. We have launched a campaign which many people have signed up to - sports personalities, political figures and so on. Momentum is building around that. Every ordinary person in the country knows this should not happen. It is just not right. It is a really poor reflection on the sports Minister and the Taoiseach who pushed the team to go ahead with that. Many of them are people of colour, from racialised communities and so on. I am sure they do not want to but the Government is nearly putting them in that situation. I appeal to the team to take a stand. It will have the support, I believe, of the vast majority of people in this country. This Bill should be supported and should be campaigned for in the next week. I agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett that there should be a free vote. The Government allowed a free vote on women's rights and bodily autonomy last night in here and it should allow it on this as well.

I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett and his colleagues for working on this and I thank Senator Black, who is here in the Chamber, for her continued work on legislation in this area, which is what we are here to discuss. The Minister's speech is, as others have said, hollow words compared to the lack of action of the Government. She talks about raising issues, she remains committed and she continues to have grave concerns. Some of the language is, "I condemn the law ... Ireland opposes... I am particularly concerned." These are all things that are not doing anything. They express a sentiment and I want to believe it. When she speaks these words, I want to believe the Minister and sometimes I do. Then I look at the actions or, specifically, the lack of actions and I cannot believe what she is saying. The people of Ireland who have campaigned so hard on this issue do not believe it either. I want to take two examples of actions the Government has taken - one of them was one of the very first actions it took and one of them is the most recent action. I do not think a lot of people remember this but on 16 January 2025 the Government announced it was endorsing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, IHRA, definition of antisemitism. It was one of the first things the Government did, as a Government, from its programme for Government. We do not talk about it much because I think people want to forget the fact this Government adopted it. What we have seen since then, 15 or 18 months later, is how that has been distanced from the people who drafted it in the first place and used in multiple jurisdictions to tackle activism, essentially, and criminalise activism in the name of the Palestinian people. That is what it has been used for. That was one of the Government's first actions. The Minister will appreciate, immediately, why we start to see distrust among everybody else in this House when the Government says it cares but that was its very first action as a Government. The most recent action, which multiple people have spoken about, is in regard to the Technion issue and the University of Galway links. Since taking office, this was one of the first times she had to deal with something that was pressing and had to be dealt with. Her response was to say that it is a university and, therefore, not a part of the state. She said she had legal advice, which we believe relates to contract law, which says action cannot be taken. Contract law is superseded, as the Minister will know, by international humanitarian law. That, to me, is a clear cut action. These are actions the Government has taken in the absence of taking what we should all be doing here, which is legislative action. The occupied territories Bill was sitting waiting for the Government. It promised an entire electorate it would deliver the occupied territories Bill immediately. When the Tánaiste was the Minister for foreign affairs about six months ago, he said it would be on Second Stage by November 2025 but I, and others, have been asking week after week: where oh where is the occupies territories Bill? The Minister will understand why trust on this issue is shredded and is on the floor because the Government has failed to do that and all we get are more and more messages about legal advice from the Attorney General and dropping services from the Bill, which no trade lawyer in the world thinks makes any sense. We do not have legislation to sanction Israel and that is what we need. There is one reference in the Minister's printed speech, on page 7, to which I want to refer. It reads: "In effect, this amounts to a boycott, divestment and sanctions approach with respect to Israel." I think there is a typo in the next line because it reads: "The Government does support that approach [I think the Minister means the Government does not support that approach] although we fully recognise the right of individuals and organisations to make their own decisions in this regard." My question to the Minister in response is: what does Israel have to do for this Government to support a boycott, divestment, sanctions, BDS, approach? What does it have to do? What atrocities has it not yet done to the people of Gaza and now of Lebanon? What? I just cannot think of any more atrocities that Israel must commit for this Government to actually sanction it. I will go back to the point I made again and again that this Government has squandered the will of this people. The Government talks about the European approach being the best way forward. I agree. It would be amazing if all of Europe agreed to this but we all know that is not happening today or tomorrow. I welcome the details the Minister gave about the progress she is making and I welcome the work she is doing in this space but we all know that is a horizon compared to what we can actually do here and now. There is no reason the Minister cannot pursue a twintrack programme on this. Look at what you can do with your European colleagues while you implement legislation here to sanction Israel. That is what we should be doing and what the Government should have been doing all along - it should have been goods and services all along. That is what this legislation offers the chance to do now. Other European countries have much more divided populations and much more complex legacies and histories regarding this issue. We do not have that because we know what it was like to be occupied by an imperialist force hundreds of years ago and for that reason, since the beginning of this genocide and for decades past, the solidarity we have had with the Palestinian cause is palpable and the Government has squandered it. Ireland should have been the first to recognise the State of Palestine. We should have been the first to introduce an occupied territories Bill. We should have been the first to comply with the ICJ ruling but we did none of those things. We were not the first in any of them. To me, this is a tradition and a piece of our people and I just cannot understand why the Government cannot see it. I want to quote from a recent book written by Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian occupied territories. I reviewed this recently for The Irish Times and recommend everybody reads it. When I read this passage I honestly got goosebumps. She wrote: "It began in Ireland in 1984, when Mary Manning, a twenty-one-year-old supermarket cashier, in accordance with the directives of her union, refused to handle grapefruit from South Africa." When Manning, and her union representative, Karen Guerin, continued to refuse to handle any South African products, calling on the other workers to do the same, they were suspended and started a strike that was joined by eight other colleagues. The strike lasted almost three years until April 1987 and set off a chain reaction that led Ireland to become the first western country to impose a total ban on the import of South African goods, thanks to public pressure aroused by the courageous gesture of Mary and her colleagues. The ban remained in place until the end of the apartheid regime in 1994. Nelson Mandela himself recognised the value of their gesture in 1990 when he was awarded honorary citizenship of Dublin. On that occasion, Mandela declared that the strikers had shown South Africans that ordinary people, far from the scene, had played a pioneering role in their struggle against apartheid. This thought, he said, had also helped him to resist in prison but that is not all. When Archbishop Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 and invited the Irish protesters to attend the ceremony, the anti-apartheid movement that was born in Ireland was hit by a wave of support that fuelled growing opposition to apartheid making a decisive contribution to bringing down this system. I will read from one further paragraph from the next section. It read that to make them collapse, oppressive regimes must be struck at their hearts - that is, in their pockets, which is where they receive the proceeds of exploitation. This is the philosophy underpinning BDS, which undertakes to publicly expose international complicity, not only political but also economic, with the apartheid regime imposed by the State of Israel on the Palestinians. The apartheid analysis of the Palestinian situation, which Ingrid Jaradat Gassner helped to develop, has also been taken up and strengthened by various human rights associations. The reason I read this is that it cuts through the Minister's whole argument around waiting for Europe, not being the first, and that we cannot do it alone. That is exactly what this is. If we chose to boycott that FAI fixture, the Government would start to see that not only the people in the group that are selected with Israel, but the people who might be in the group that Israel would advance to, will start. It is the same domino effect. That is what leadership is. That is what Pedro Sánchez is demonstrating, by talking further action and by pushing this as far as he can. The Government hides behind sweet words. When I started in this Chamber, the then Deputy Catherine Connolly, now President of the State, used to say that all of the time. She talked about the Government's "sweet words" and it really struck me as a new TD. Eighteen months in, I know exactly what she means because I am drowned in the Government's sweet words. Every single week when we ask about the occupied territories Bill and the Government's lack of action on Gaza, on Palestine and on Lebanon, I am so sick of these sweet words. We need action and I echo everybody else in saying that we should have a vote of conscience on this next week where the Government TDs are allowed to vote on this according to their conscience. I have been tackled by a Government Minister, in fact, who once said to me how we are fanning online hatred against the Government because of our championing of the Palestinian cause. That is not us doing it. That is the people of Ireland seeing the inaction on these benches and coming at the Government online, so allow the Government TDs to vote.

I commend the Palestine solidarity movement. Over the past number of years, it has marched probably a couple of hundred of kilometres at this stage. It is a testament to the Irish people and their solidarity with the Palestinian people. I would like to thank Deputy Boyd Barrett and Senator Black. The occupied territories Bill has been ongoing for eight years. I remember it took 24 hours to bail out the bankers and the bondholders. When they needed the money, the Government was there. It was right there right beside them supporting them. I am sorry the Minister has gone because last week, she spoke proudly on Europe Day about what the EU have done with regard to Russia. Within days of the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU acted decisively and collectively. They were all together in this sanctioning of Russia but every time an occupied territory Bill comes before this Chamber, the Government says we are working together with the countries to build a coalition in terms of bringing sanctions against Israel. Let us call it what it is - a genocidal apartheid regime. It has been attacking Gaza for the last two and a half years while murdering in the region of 80,000 people. In Lebanon, it is currently ethnically cleansing entire villages and wiping them off the map in a tactic it learned in Gaza. A total of 80% of those in Gaza who have been displaced multiple times are actually refugees from the Nakba in 1948. There has been illegal and criminal use of food, water and sewage to spread disease and electricity has been cut. These are basic needs for human existence that are controlled by the Zionist regime. It has attacked and invaded Syria again murdering people and destroying their homes and villages. It has attacked Qatar, a US ally, killing the Hamas negotiating team while it was trying to negotiate peace. It recently kicked off another war with Iran. How did it start? It killed many the Iranian leaders who were actually negotiating with the US on a peace deal to prevent war. The terrorist wing, Mossad, kills and maims people across the world whenever it suits it. In 2010, Ireland expelled an Israeli diplomat because the Zionist terror regime was using the passports of innocent Irish people in Dubai. The Israeli terrorist regime operates an apartheid regime while stealing land from Palestinians every day, bulldozing their homes and businesses and moving mostly foreign settlers paid for by the economic support the European Union has given it. The Minister of State may look away. I hope he is ashamed that he will not even look while I am speaking. Palestinians have to use separate roads if they are even allowed on the roads following hours being held at checkpoints. Israelis have separate Jewish-only roads. Churches and mosques are closed at the whim of the Israeli murder machine to give Zionists the ability to walk through Palestinian communities. We see it every week on our social media. It is actually very similar to how our own citizens in the North were treated by the unionist regime during the marching season by being forced into their own homes and communities to facilitate triumphalist marches. I cannot even begin to describe the treatment of Palestinian women and children in Zionist jails. The reports of rape, torture, starvation and utter horror would make even the Nazis hold their heads in shame. This is only the tip of the iceberg of the abuse of the Palestinian and Lebanese people. Why? Because they do not let the media in. They have killed all of the journalists who were there and do not allow any journalists in. To be honest, the Minister's words mean absolutely nothing. She states "It is well understood that EU sanctions regimes are designed carefully to avoid and mitigate unintended consequences, including consequences for civilian populations and access to essential goods" and so on. What does that actually mean for the people who are being murdered today or the villages that are being ethnically cleansed today? What does that mean for the homes, schools, churches and hospitals or to the ambulances driving to somebody when they have just blown a family up? They deliberately target the ambulances and the paramedics. What sort of society and people can do that but what sort of people can stand by and see it happening? This is not the Germany of the 1940s and the Second World War where people opened up the concentration camps and saw the horrors of what was going on. We know this is happening now. We have seen it happen on a daily basis. We get it through our phones, media and newspapers. We see it every day and yet the EU can laud itself on how wonderful it is and the Minister of State as part of this Government can laud himself about how wonderful the Government is with regard to Russia. I tell the Minister of State that the Government can hang its head in shame when it comes to the people of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria; the people who are being murdered on a daily basis by that murderous regime. There is one thing the Government can do. None of those Deputies, unfortunately, turned up today to listen to this but I hope they are listening and I hope that over the next few days, when the emails come flying through and the lobbying comes through, they examine their consciences. I hope they look at themselves, their own families, the homes they built, the communities in which they live, the churches, schools and hospitals they go to and everything that has been built up in their community and I hope they say "my God, am I lucky. I have this but the Palestinian people do not". I hope they look at their consciences next week, dig deep and say they are going to support this Bill because it is the right thing to do.

Gabhaim buíochas le gach duine a bhí ag caint inniu ar son an Bhille seo, agus i gcomparáid leis sin, gach duine a bhí ag labhairt faoi na rudaí atáimid tar éis a dhéanamh ar son na Palaistínigh. Tá mise ag iarraidh labhairt chun a bheith cinnte go dtuigeann an tAire nach bhfuil an méid ama atá caite againn ag déanamh athruithe don Bhille atá an Seanadóir Black tar éis obair na gcapall a dhéanamh air maith go leor. I am supporting this Government as an independent. I said multiple times that it is how I believe I can be as effective as possible. The programme for Government that I signed up to stated that it would: Progress legislation prohibiting goods from Occupied Palestinian Territories following the July 2024 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion. Continue to oppose and condemn Hamas and other groups which bring terror [...]. Support UNRWA and advocate within Europe for increased support. Work with partners in the EU to introduce further sanctions against [Israeli] settler activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. That is what we signed up to but that is not the case and I do believe that there is clearly a delay. We need to pass the occupied territories Bill in respect of goods and services on which Senator Frances Black has been working with her team. I have met her team and got the legal advice that it would withstand a challenge. When this Bill is being pushed down, we are constantly told that it would not. People, including lawyers and other professionals, came into our audiovisual room and said that it would withstand scrutiny. Even if it does not, do we not have that guts to show it and send it because the point is that we are doing everything we can? I wish that the Minister had not left. There is a Palestinian in my constituency named Amir whose family is still in Gaza. I met him here. I have met him multiple times. How could I look him in the eye and say that I am not doing everything that I can? He is gorgeous man and his family are gorgeous. I have spoken to them. I have spoken to those in the foster house in which he lives. As for the Palestinian groups across Ireland, we have a clear mandate. I want to thank all the Palestinian advocacy groups and everyone who has relentlessly pushed and pushed but we have to give them something. I recognise the investments in care and State aid that we have given but we need to do this now. A friend of mine named Mikey Cullen is currently on the flotilla bringing aid and food and trying to break that illegal siege on Gaza. I have spoken on FaceTime while on one of those flotillas to young children who were delighted to see that the West is listening to them, only for us to be illegally abducted and brutalised. I saw one of my colleagues on the boat getting rammed, thrown on the ground and spat at by Israelis. This Bill is not anti-Israel. It not anti-Jewish. We had Israelis on the flotilla with us who were not happy with what the regime was doing. This Bill is anti-genocide and anti-bombing of children. It is showing them that we are standing up to them and doing everything we can. Ireland's power has not been its size or great military. I welcome the work that has been done at an EU level in getting the coalition of like-minded countries, but looking at Spain, Slovenia and the countries that have brought in legislative changes that we were talking to in those negotiations in the EU, why can we not take a leaf out of their books? While I was on the flotilla, Eleanor Lanigan, who was there because she was working for me as my PA, came to the initial call when she had stage 4 cancer. She wanted to get on the flotilla and said, "Feck it, I am dying anyway". I said that, no, she had to go back. These men and women who are constantly campaigning, of all ages, genders and walks of life, are showing us up in here. We have seen the reports and the International Court of Justice. It is clear that we cannot pretend we do not have a role here. That is why I support this Bill. It does not break ties or shut down dialogue or diplomacy. What it does is very simple: it says that Ireland will not allow our money, our trade or what our country generates to fuel something the world knows is wrong. How many UN reports and independent reports have shown that this has been happening? We have been here before. I welcome the contribution by Deputy Gibney about what we did on apartheid in South Africa. We were ahead then. We are behind now, but it is not too late for us to catch up and run with the other people who are taking a stand. I spoke to Farid, a Palestinian refugee, on the phone last night and asked him about it. I told him to watch this tonight, and he said I should come in here and tell the Government to do it. Now, he does not understand. He is a lot more eager than I would be. He is an amazing man. With everything he has been through, he still has a smile on his face and is still proud of his country in the way he speaks and the photos he has shown me, but they are clinging to rubble now. To the people who say sanctions will not make a difference, doing nothing will not make a difference but sanctions will. Ireland's voice matters. When a group of small nations take a stand, history has shown that the big ones will follow. Regarding the Bill and the emails I have been getting saying it is antisemitic and that I am antisemitic, I am not antisemitic. I am anti-starvation and anti using famine as a war tool. I am anti breaking every international law, and I am anti illegally abducting Irish citizens off the coast of an EU country and beating them. To the Israeli families who want peace and who have reached out to me, we hear you; the people of Ireland hear you and we want peace. To the Palestinian families, to Milad's mother, we are watching. I hope Milad is watching now. Ireland's strength has never been its size, but our courage. The Minister of State has heard this a thousand times, but the same people who brutally abused our ancestors went over and did the same there. That regime is still in place. We have an international obligation to act when we know what is happening. The Geneva Convention did not fall out of the sky. It is time to be brave. It is time to do something and allow a free vote on this Bill.

I thank all the Deputies for their very sincere and heartfelt contributions to the debate on this very important and extremely complex issue. The strength of opinion and depth of feeling held across the House on the situation in Palestine is very clear and the Government fully acknowledges the desire to take action in response to persistent Israeli breaches of human rights and international law. The Government also understands the urge to do more, to move the dial and to bring an end to the terrible suffering of the people of Palestine, particularly those in Gaza. Respect for international law is at the core of Ireland's foreign policy. Ireland has been consistently vocal in calling for Israel to comply with its obligations under international law, and Ireland continues to pursue action through the international courts to address breaches of international law and international human rights in Palestine. We condemn Israel's illegal occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories. As Deputies are aware, in July 2024, the International Court of Justice delivered an advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem; a case in which Ireland made written and oral submissions. Ireland subsequently co-sponsored a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2024 seeking to implement the court's advisory opinion. We have also welcomed the ICJ advisory opinion in October 2025, which automatically affirmed Israel's obligation under international law regarding the presence and activities of the UN under international organisations and third states in occupied Palestinian territories. We continue to urge Israel to immediately remove its restrictions on aid access and facilitate essential supplies and services into and throughout Gaza. We are seeing long-overdue momentum at European level following co-ordinated pressure by Ireland and other like-minded states. Ireland strongly welcomes political agreement at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting last Monday to proceed with sanctions against volitant settlers in the West Bank and organisations that enable them. This is a crucial step in response to the accelerating expansion of settlement activities and settler violence in the West Bank in an atmosphere of impunity. There is clear, growing support for additional measures at an EU level in response to Israel's persistent breaches of international law, and Ireland has called on the EU to suspend the EU-Israel associated agreements or, at the very least, to suspend the trade element of the agreement, as previously proposed by the Commission President in September 2025. The Government will continue to press for appropriate EU-level action in response to the egregious Israeli breaches of human rights and domestic principles. The viability of the two-state solution and the credibility of the EU is at stake if we do not act. At the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, called on the Commission to bring forward proposals to prohibit trade with Israeli settlements, with a view to agreeing a decision at the next meeting of the council in June. At EU level, a ban on trade with settlements would have had a significant impact and been necessary to ensure that the EU was compliant with its obligations under international law, as clarified by the advisory opinion of the ICJ. The Government will continue to press for this step, working with like-minded partners in the EU. In parallel, the Government remains committed to progressing the Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories Bill of 2025. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, has set out the approach that the Government has taken in this regard. We believe the position we take and the actions for which we advocate must be grounded in law and capable of being effectively implemented. Regrettably, for the reasons set out by the Minister, this has not been the case for this Private Members' Bill. While we have fundamental policy differences with the present Government of Israel and with the actions it is taking, we must be very clear that Ireland does not have, nor does it support, a policy of boycotting Israel or any sovereign state with which we have diplomatic relations. This Private Members' Bill would amount to a full economic boycott of Israel.

I thank the people in the Gallery for sitting through all of that, particularly the comments of those in government. One thing I think they should know is that the senior Minister does not normally come in to take these Thursday debates. The reason she did is because the people in the Gallery are here and because there will, I hope, be tens of thousands of people on the streets again on Saturday, as there have been month in, month out for the past three years as a result of the slaughter being visited on the Palestinian people. After what they have heard today, I hope people will also mobilise next Wednesday outside the gates of the Dáil when the vote on this Bill is due to take place. We should not give up on exerting the kind of pressure that brought the Minister in here. Normally, as stated, senior Ministers do not come in for these Thursday debates. The Minister came in because of the pressure that people are exerting on the Government. This Government is under pressure. I want to again thank Senator Frances Black, who also sat through all of this debate, and she has sat through a lot over the past ten years or so listening to promises about how the Government was going to progress her Bill, and it never happens. I do not know. Deputy Paul Murphy and I were debating whether the Government is ever going to pass it or whether it will just pass it and then dilute it to such a point that it will have no impact. That is the space we are in. The Government's tactic does seem to be to speak out of both sides of its mouth. There was a bit of the Minister's speech that was designed to make it look as if the Government is concerned and cares, but the bottom line, as has already been said, is that the Government will "not be supporting the Bill in its current form". It is not too late; if the Government is saying that the Bill needs a few amendments, the Minister of State should not call the vote now. The senior Minister has left because, at the end of this, the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach will ask if this Bill to impose economic sanctions and break off economic, trade and finance relations with the State of Israel because of its involvement in genocide, apartheid and multiple breaches of international law and human rights is agreed. Second Stage will be agreed unless the Minister of State says "Not agreed". That is what is going to happen. Despite all the 15 or 20 pages of the Minister's speech, and all the crocodile tears, the Minister of State is, I assume, going to say "Not agreed". If the Government does not say that, we moved forward towards the imposition of sanctions. We have set out that we believe it is clear, from the ICJ rulings in previous cases and from the case law around genocide, that all signatories of the Genocide Convention have an obligation to act to prevent and punish the crime of genocide, the worst crime a state or anybody can commit. It has been committed, and the Irish Government has said - it took a while, but eventually - that it believes it has been committed and yet, it is refusing its obligations to do what is in its power to impose those sanctions. Let us be absolutely clear. Israel will not stop killing Palestinians. It will not stop its genocidal campaign against them, its illegal occupation of their land and the brutal siege of Gaza. Millions of Palestinians live in refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria and all across the Middle East, whose forebears were driven out in the act of ethnic cleansing in 1948 known as the Nakba, the 78th anniversary of which is this year. The State of Israel will not stop committing the crimes it has been committing since 1948 unless it is stopped. That is clear. Surely, it is clear. It will not stop unless it is stopped. If we continue to treat it as a normal state, why would it stop? All the evidence suggests the opposite. All the evidence is that if you allow it to act with impunity, it becomes emboldened. It goes further, and what it does gets worse. The genocidal horror does not improve, and being nice to Israel does not make it a little better. It gets worse and is emboldened by the impunity it enjoys. We are now at a point where there is no crime, horror, obscenity or atrocity that the Israeli regime is not willing to commit blatantly and flagrantly and to crow about the commission of these crimes. Some of the stuff is just beyond belief. I refer to some of the statements these people have made. To give the Minister of State some examples, in February 2025, the deputy speaker of the Knesset said that all adults in Gaza should be killed. He described all Palestinians as scum. Imagine if the Leas-Cheann Comhairle said that about any group. What would we think? That is what the Leas-Cheann Comhairle of the Knesset said about Palestinians. This is not a normal regime. The Government draws a distinction between the occupied territories and says, "Oh, we accept that is wrong". To trade with an occupied territory most certainly is wrong. It is prohibited under international law. Who directs the brutal, illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, however? The State of Israel directs it. Who directed the illegal siege of Gaza that has gone on for 17 years, which leads them to even kidnap people bringing humanitarian aid from this country and around the world on the high seas and in international waters? Who directs that? The Israeli state directs it. Who directs the bombardment of Lebanon and the reoccupation of southern Lebanon? The Israeli state does it and successive Israeli governments - not just this one - have done it. They have been doing it since 1948. Every single Israeli Government has done it. I am not saying there is not a minority of people in Israel who are opposed but the opinion polls are clear. The vast majority of people in the Israeli state support what the Israeli regime is doing, and it always has. I lived there. The reason the Minister of State has to put up with me in this House is because I went there. I was not political; I went there when I was 18 years of age and I stumbled into the first Palestinian intifada. I was horrified. When I was there, there was no armed resistance by Palestinians. They were young people protesting against the apartheid regime and against the fact that they had been living in refugee camps all of their lives. Their families had been driven out in 1948, and they were protesting on the streets. The worst act of violence they committed was to throw stones at the Israeli military, the fourth most powerful military in the world, and they were brutally shot down and beaten down. As for armed resistance, the development of Hamas even as an armed wing did not happen until years after that. It was the brutality of the regime. It was not willing to give an inch on the brutal system of apartheid. The Israeli regime had made it clear; it wanted to further expand the borders of Israel. It wants to drive the Palestinians out. The intent of the regime is genocidal. Are we going to do anything about that? If we do not, it is not going to stop. What the Government is saying is that we cannot do it unless the European Union says it is okay. We know Germany, as we speak, is a major provider of arms to the regime committing this genocidal horror. I have not mentioned Daniel Tatlow-Devally, an Irish citizen who has been imprisoned since, I think, last September and treated as if he is a terrorist because he took direct action against Elbit Systems, the main provider of weapons from Germany to Israel to allow it to commit the crimes we have seen in Gaza and elsewhere. He is being treated like a terrorist, and his family are begging the Irish Government to send observers to the trial, which is a show trial, a travesty and a disgrace. The doublespeak is clear. The Government will not send an observer. It will not call for a boycott of the football match, and we discovered this week that €20 million worth of technology licences have been approved by the Irish Government and are going to the Israeli military, which is carrying out all these atrocities. Then there is Shannon Airport and the US military, which is up to its neck in complicity with Israel, providing it with all the weapons - weapons allowed to go through Irish airspace by the Irish Government. We are up to our necks in complicity. That is why we are doing nothing. I ask the Government to pull back. We have an obligation, as a former colony, to stand with people suffering this sort of genocidal horror and colonial oppression. I ask the Minister of State to end the complicity and not to stand up and say "Not agreed". Do the right thing.

Tá an vótáil curtha siar go dtí an tseachtain seo chugainn i gcomhréir le Buan-Ordú 85(2).