I would like to thank the hundreds and thousands of Irish people who have marched through the streets of the Thirty-two Counties of Ireland in support of the Palestinian people. The occupied territories legislation would ban all trade, including services, with Israeli illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and in east Jerusalem. It would send a clear message to the apartheid and genocidal regime that there are real consequences for its murderous slaughter of tens of thousands of men, women and children and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their lands and their homes, and the stealing of their homes and land on a daily basis. We are not just talking about the stealing of land in 1947; we are talking about land being stolen as we stand here today. Land is being robed every single day by the Zionists and supported by the Israeli Government and Israeli army. Just as with its housing targets, the Government has also lied to the people about its intention to progress this Bill. Let us call this Government's election promise what it is: a lie.

Sentiment score: -0.15

Sadly, the Government could have progressed the occupied territories Bill in the last seven years. Now it suddenly decides that we now have to look at it again and we have to reword it. I call it out for what it is.

Sentiment score: -0.14

Untruth, mistruth, whatever way we want to word it. We all know exactly what we are talking about here. The comments overnight by the American President have shocked the entire world - the horror of a world leader openly talking about ethnic cleansing a whole population for his developer friends in the US and Israel should be a line in the sand for the other world leaders, including those in this Government. The EU acted decisively when Ukraine was attacked and occupied by Putin and Russia. It is now time to use those same arguments and logic to act against the Israeli apartheid regime. In this Parliament, we have had a Ukrainian flag from the very day that Ukraine was occupied. Where is the Palestinian flag? Where is the support for the Palestinian people shown clearly in this Parliament? Most of the world stood by and watched genocide take place in Gaza. Even today the world stands by as the brutal Israeli military machine attacks the West Bank. I watched a video last night showing dozens of bombs going off simultaneously in the Jenin camp which is as heavily built up as Gaza is. I do not know how many people were killed in those attacks last night and we probably never will know. We will never know the number of people who have been killed in Gaza because many of them are still buried beneath that rubble. How bizarre that the State can turn a blind eye and trade with a state that is before the International Criminal Court for genocide while at the same time joining in that case.

Sentiment score: -0.26