Could Members please have a copy of the Minister of State's remarks, as is customary?
Sentiment score: 0.32
That is not what our motion asks of the Minister of State.
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The Minister of State is raising extraneous matters that are not contained in our motion.
Sentiment score: 0.03
Shame on you.
Sentiment score: -0.48
Shame.
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You are joking me.
Sentiment score: 0.23
What about the genocide?
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It is offensive that we have to listen to this.
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Hear, hear.
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Hear, hear.
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Which one? What was unparliamentary?
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I thought it was a most appropriate comment.
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That is absolute rubbish.
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You are welcome to.
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Where?
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We teach life, sir. We Palestinians teach life after they have occupied the last sky. We teach life after they have built their settlements and apartheid walls, after the last skies. We teach life, sir. How many Palestinian lives can Israel steal? How many Hind Rajabs? How many mothers, fathers, doctors, nurses or farmers? Is there a point? Is there a red line or a bottom line? How many farms can be destroyed, olive groves ploughed through, homes destroyed or football infrastructure destroyed? Is there a bottom line? Is there a point at which Zionism is stopped? Is there a point at which Israeli impunity is not merely named but confronted? There are moments where a refusal to act, where excuses and distractions are exposed as complicity. There are moments when looking away and a determination to keep looking away becomes an obvious political choice. There are moments when people, governments, institutions and, yes, when sport will choose to either stand on the side of justice or accommodate and enable injustice and oppression. The world witnesses. We witness the devastation of Gaza with hospitals bombed, schools destroyed and refugee camps attacked. We witness starvation used as a weapon against civilian populations and children killed, maimed and orphaned in numbers that should shock the conscience of the world. This is not merely a conflict. This is a genocide. As desperate families queue for food and aid, they face bombardment, displacement and fear. Yet, despite all of this, only two Government members have come into the Chamber. The rest of their benches are bare. They are benches of shame. They come in here to tell us that when it comes to a football match against Israel, sport should be treated as separate from the reality that unfolds before our eyes. We reject that proposition. Sport does not exist in a vacuum, and it never has. Sport is the most powerful force for inclusion, equality and justice. It can be used to challenge rather than enable. Those who have ignorantly argued that sport and politics should never mix conveniently disregard the key role sporting boycotts played in isolating apartheid South Africa and conquering apartheid South Africa at that time. I want to read the names of four brave rugby players - Tony Ward, Moss Keane, Donal Spring and Hugo MacNeill. They knew in 1981 that sport could not be used to enable and prolong discriminatory and racist practices in apartheid South Africa. They were right then, and they are right now. I applaud them for that fact. Thousands of athletes, players and sports officials have been killed in Palestine and Gaza. Our motion sets out the disgusting and deeply troubling facts of the International Court of Justice's findings on Israel's occupation and settlement policies. The court issued provisional measures warning of the risk of genocidal acts and requiring Israel to comply with its obligations. Hundreds of sporting facilities have been destroyed. Entire generations of Palestinians have seen not only their homes and schools targeted but their pitches and clubs. Places that ought to be their places of joy are stolen from them. We come in here this evening and have this Pontius Pilate routine from the Government. This is deeply shocking. It is not enough to try to hide behind the spin. Of course, the FAI, UEFA and FIFA make the sporting decisions. Of course they govern their sporting codes. We recognise that in our motion. We ask merely that the Government stand on the right side of this and back the growing campaign to stop this game and gives the FAI the protection and cover to do the right thing and protect those who don the green jersey, so they know when they make the moral choice that their Government is on their side. That is what this motion is about and that is why we must stop this game.
Sentiment score: -0.14