How can the Minister justify banning trade with Israel without including services? Services are such an essential part of the occupied territories Bill, yet the Government continues to downplay their importance. Take Airbnb, for example, on which there are roughly 300 properties listed for rent in the occupied West Bank, homes stolen from Palestinians by Israeli settler thugs who then lease them out for profit. That is utterly depraved and completely illegal. These 300 properties represent only a fraction of the more than 8 million properties available worldwide on Airbnb, but for Palestinians whose homes have been stolen and who had lived in those homes for several generations, the sick thing is that they would not be allowed to lease those houses because they would not be allowed to use the apartheid roads to get to these places, as Conor O'Neill from Christian Aid told us yesterday. To suggest that Ireland blocking Airbnb from renting these properties will threaten jobs is farcical. The properties account for less than 0.00004% of the industry but it is 100% the right thing to do. Including services in the Bill now also has a precedent, thanks to the Spanish Government. The Government should not try to mislead us that Spain banned only advertising services. Airbnb cannot list properties in the occupied territories under the occupied territories Bill. It is not just advertising. Our Taoiseach downplaying that to mere advertising is disgraceful. Spain has not seen any kind of financial or economic backlash from the United States, as so many have said would happen to us here. Nobody has lost their job in Spain over this and no company has moved abroad. This genocide is not hidden from us; it is unfolding in front of us in real time, before the eyes of the world. Every day we witness unimaginable suffering. Future generations, including our children and grandchildren, will ask who spoke out, who acted and who cowered when courage was called out for. My generation often ask what we would have done if we had seen the Nazi Holocaust. Would we have remained silent and looked away? This is no longer a hypothetical question today. Ireland must send a clear message that we believe "never again" means never again. Including services in the Bill will not end the genocide - that is true - but years from now, when people look back on history, when our kids are reading their history books, they will see that Ireland did not just choose the bare minimum. Let it be said that when we were confronted with a genocide, Ireland gave it 100%. This partial Bill the Government is bringing forward brings dishonour on Senator Black's original intent.

Sentiment score: -0.06