I thank the Social Democrats for bringing this motion here today. I sat here last night and have sat here again this morning, listening to the debates. The first thing I have noticed is there is absolutely zero from the Government bench. It is absolutely shameful. It is crocodile tears we see in here. I do not like scripts but I will speak very bluntly. The Government just does not have the balls to stand up to genocide. If this game goes ahead, you might as well bring in who I call Netanyahu the Devil along and dress him up in Prada and we will have a huge Israeli hoo-ha with the headline that the Devil wears Prada in honour of everything the Israelis did in Palestine. It is absolutely shameful. There is awful pressure on those players. Everybody is very proud to put on their national jersey. To think of an Israeli team with an Israeli flag on Irish soil with the national anthem and the Israeli national anthem being sung and it being acknowledged as normal is absolutely unbelievable and unimaginable. Yesterday, I listened to a debate in the audiovisual room from the Stop the Game campaign. One thing that struck me was there were 100 children lined up on a soccer pitch in Palestine. They placed them so close together that it took one bullet to shoot every one of them. That is the gut these Israeli people have. It has been said over and over again here that this Government has an opportunity. We are known as a very proud nation, a strong nation and a sporting nation but we also stand up for those who are being persecuted because we have learned from our own history. We have heard many lines here before about how we do not want to be on the wrong side of history. I urge the Government to withdraw its countermotion. It is utterly shameful. The Irish people are very angry and very hurt. What if the Government had to walk in the shoes of any Palestinian. I have spoken to many of them. I have asked them how they are actually still coping and living today. One individual said to me that all we have left is hope. Each and every one of us has an opportunity to throw politics out the window, do the right thing and stand up to say "No" that we are not letting this game go ahead and that Ireland will not participate in any sporting event whatsoever and tell the FAI to forget about the sanctions. There is a court proceeding that can go further than this. I do not even think UEFA has the balls to take us on because it will set a precedent. If we do the right thing now, we can stand up here in a year's time or ten years' time and say we are proud we did the right thing and we stood up for the people who needed us.

Sentiment score: -0.08