One million Irish people, the Taoiseach's ancestors and mine, starved to death during the Great Famine in the 1840s and 1850s. Two million of us were driven to cross the Atlantic in coffin ships in search of mere survival. Thousands of us died on those ships. At home, our people died in cabins, in ditches, on the roads and in workhouses. There is hardly a parish in the country that has not a famine graveyard. To this day, the awful devastation of the Famine is imprinted in our minds, our hearts and our very souls. While the failure of the potato crop was the initial cause, the appalling vista is that the Famine could have been avoided but for the deliberate actions and inaction of a foreign imperial Government. The continued export of shipload after shipload of food from Ireland while we starved was thoroughly disgraceful and inhuman. Today, 2.3 million Palestinians are facing starvation. All reputable international organisations say that 500,000 Palestinians are facing catastrophic levels of hunger while another 1 million are facing emergency levels of hunger. The State of Israel and its defence forces are deliberately starving the Palestinian people. They have blocked all food aid to Gaza since 2 March and, in the words of the Israeli defence minister, no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza. The shiploads of food exported from Ireland during the Famine can be compared to the 3,000 truckloads of food being blocked by the Israel Defense Forces on the borders of Gaza. I acknowledge and appreciate the Taoiseach's description of this as a war crime and I acknowledge and appreciate the involvement of the State with South Africa in the international courts, but we must do more. This State and the Taoiseach, because of our famine history and our neutrality, have a unique moral authority and obligation to do everything in our power to stop the genocidal starvation of 2.3 million human beings in Gaza. The Israeli state must face consequences. The Taoiseach has himself described it as a war crime.
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I believe this country must take action that is within our control, like stopping the Central Bank from facilitating the sale of Israeli state bonds, stopping all military flights through Shannon, even if that is a temporary measure-----
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-----prosecuting airlines that are bringing armaments through our airspace and immediately reintroducing the occupied territories Bill in this House.
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I am sorry but that is not good enough. We have to do more. Gaza is absolutely shocking. We have genocide and war crimes every hour of every day. The Palestinian people are being starved and bombed every hour of every day. Time is not on their side. Half a million are in a catastrophic state of hunger and starvation. Surely some country, or some leader, must stand up and take dramatic action to stop this. The Taoiseach has already said that this is a war crime. We went through something similar ourselves in the 1840s and 1850s. We have, and the Taoiseach has, the authority - the international authority - to do something practical and dramatic to stop what is happening. These people are being starved to death. The Taoiseach has the opportunity to lead the international opposition to this. For God’s sake, please do so.
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We can do things without them.
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We can do things ourselves.
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I acknowledge what you have done but there are things you can do, and there are things this country can do, and they can do it now.
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Something dramatic needs to be done to stop this situation.
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Big things start small.
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It is a desperate situation.
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