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Seanad
‹ An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

Gaza starvation and US visa fears

Summary

Senator Clonan condemns the starvation of children in Gaza, is cautioned by the Chair over quoted language, and then asks whether political speech could be policed through US visa checks. The Chair and Clonan exchange apologies and clarifications about quoting and decorum.

I welcome our friends from Slovenia. I wish to speak about the issue of children in Gaza dying of thirst. This is an appalling apocalyptic notion to think that children are dying of thirst, when literally 2 km or 3 km away, there are supermarkets in Israel full of food, water and energy drinks. There is no absence of water for Gaza. There is no absence of food. What there is is a desire and a willingness on the part of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Forces to murder and carry out an act of genocide by way of forced starvation. This is not famine; it is forced starvation. I have said this before and I will say it again: the Israel Defense Forces and Netanyahu's cabinet is made up of Christians, Muslims, Druze, Bedouin Arabs and Shia and Sunni Muslims. Any criticism of the IDF or Netanyahu is not a criticism of Judaism or Jews; it is a criticism of war crimes, a war criminal and genocide.

It is has been made aware to us in the media that the US Embassy now requires all Irish citizens applying for a visa to the United States to provide all of their social media identities for the past five years and to make all of their settings public. The views and opinions of young people like those in the Visitors Gallery and views of people like myself will be audited to establish whether or not they run contrary to US foreign policy, such as it is, because, to quote the President Trump, "They don't know what the fuck they're doing." It is an on the record quote. It has been made clear-----

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Mark Daly An Cathaoirleach Fianna Fáil

Senator, with all due respect, I know you are quoting people. You can quote people, but if we all start quoting people-----

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It reflects the vulgarity.

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Mark Daly An Cathaoirleach Fianna Fáil

-----in the manner that the Senator is quoting, it is not fitting of the House.

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I apologise. He said, "what the f--- they're doing", but it reflects the barbarity and the vulgarity of the polity in which we inhabit.

My question for colleagues is this. When we go next year, as I presume many will, to the White House and when we apply for our visas to travel to the United States on political business, will our statements be audited and censored? Will I be banned from entering the United States for calling out the genocide and murder of children by forced starvation? We need to have a debate on this. We need to have the Tánaiste come to the House to fundamentally debate and reassess our relationship in foreign policy terms if that relationship implies an acceptance of censorship of us and our young people travelling on J1 visas. I apologise for the f word; I was quoting President Trump.

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Mark Daly An Cathaoirleach Fianna Fáil

I know who you were quoting.

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I thought we could quote people. I did not realise. My apologies.

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Mark Daly An Cathaoirleach Fianna Fáil

Well, within reason.

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