Gaza humanitarian crisis
Deputy Gogarty condemned Israel’s blockade and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, welcoming Ireland’s intervention at the ICJ but saying more was needed. The Tánaiste strongly criticised the aid blockade, affirmed Ireland’s continued international engagement, and noted recent EU-Palestinian dialogue.
The total Israeli blockade on humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip has now passed 60 days, in what the United Nations human rights chief, Volker Türk, has described as a "new unseen level" of humanitarian crisis. A recent report by Amnesty International stated that Israel was carrying out livestreamed genocide in Gaza, routinely targeting civilians and engaging in torture and enforced disappearances. We are on the third day of hearings by the International Court of Justice into Israel's obligations to Palestinians. The Government's intervention in that case was very welcome but it seems that since the St. Patrick's Day visit to Trump, we have been cowed by US pressure. Will the occupied territories Bill come before the Oireachtas by the end of this term? As we have seen with other legislation, the Bill can be tweaked on Committee and Report Stages. We need to send out a signal that we are taking this issue seriously and doing what we can to call out Israeli atrocities.
Comment on this
The Government and I share the Deputy's view on what we are seeing in terms of the stopping of aid getting into Gaza. It is despicable and it is causing untold harm, to put it very mildly. One cannot find the words to capture how horrific the situation is in Gaza. I thank the Deputy for his comments regarding the Government's intervention on behalf of Ireland at the ICJ. I assure him that our work continues. We recently had an EU-Palestinian high-level dialogue, which was the first engagement between the EU and Palestine. I represented Ireland at that engagement. We have provided very significant funding at an EU level to support the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA.
Regarding the occupied territories Bill, I remain absolutely committed to acting on the commitment in the programme for Government to bring forward legislation. I am due to meet the sponsor of the original Bill next week. I am eager to get to work with her on this but I am also every eager that any legislation we pass can genuinely be meaningful and lawful. I am happy to come back to the Deputy in the next week regarding my plans.