Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Overall sentiment: -0.25
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This is not the Bill that Senator Frances Black intended that the Dáil would pass. Others have outlined the differences already and I will not repeat them. Given Israel's actions since the Senator first published her occupied territories Bill, a watering down of the intent is not what is or was required. Given the slaughter in recent years by Israel, I reiterate my full support for calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions. The Israeli state's barbarity against Palestinians and neighbouring countries in comparable to very few regimes in modern history. It is genocide through and through. Seventy-five thousand are dead in Gaza, 175,000 are wounded, and 1 million have been displaced in the space of two and a half years. This is being funded by large companies, which have to be boycotted, divested from and sanctioned. The company that the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, has endorsed to demolish the historic Moore Street site, Hammerson, is now in partnership with a company that has been named by the UN as having sustained Israel's settler colonial project of displacement and replacement of the Palestinians in the occupied territory and is profiting from Israel's economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now genocide. The Allianz asset management subsidiary, PIMCO, purchased nearly €1 billion of Israeli war bonds. We need to boycott Allianz, boycott Israel and impose sanctions. Along with others in this House, I have seen with my own eyes, the confiscated land, the clearances, the apartheid road, the contaminated farm lands, the demolished homes and businesses, the destruction of olive trees which take decades to grow, the harassment and interference with the day-to-day lives of Palestinians and the detention of hundreds. Last month alone, there were 1,695 attacks by Israelis - by military and settlers - against Palestinians in the West Bank. That needs to end.

Sentiment score: -0.25