The Social Democrats and I welcome the release of the 14 Irish citizens who were illegally detained by Israel from the Global Sumud Flotilla. I appreciate the updates the Minister provided in today’s proceedings. I listened to closely to them. I asked last week what Israel has to do or what atrocities it has to commit for us to see action from European leaders. Honestly, I have seen in the past 48 hours my answer to that because, apparently, when a fraction of the demonic modus operandi of this Israeli State is inflicted upon European citizens, we see strong responses but this is compared to the ongoing torture of thousands of Palestinian detainees when we see an absolutely muted response. Will the Minister acknowledge the two-tier response we have seen from European leaders? Will she go beyond what she said earlier is a strong message, which the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement would be, to actual sanctioning of Israel and finally holding it to account for the constant breaking of international law that we see?

Sentiment score: 0.15