I express my condolences to the family and friends of Yves Sakila. A video circulating online of an incident before his death is deeply disturbing. There must be a full, comprehensive and transparent investigation into what happened. Yesterday, Israel committed yet another blatant breach of international law. The Israel Defense Forces, IDF, boarded a flotilla in international waters and again kidnapped humanitarian activists, including 12 Irish citizens. They took this action not because the flotilla posed any kind of threat, but to stop humanitarian aid reaching a starving population in Gaza. The activists on the flotilla were kidnapped for simply trying to bring them food, medicine and baby formula. Among those kidnapped was one of my constituents, Tom Deasy from Clonakilty, as well as the President's sister, Dr. Margaret Connolly, a Sligo GP. Twelve Irish citizens, including the sister of our Head of State, have been illegally detained. It is completely unprecedented, not that we would have known this from the Government’s response, because it took it 12 hours to issue a four-line statement about it. This is not just deeply disappointing; this is utterly pathetic. For more than two years, we have heard daily reports of Palestinian people being killed, injured and illegally detained. Meanwhile, settler violence in the West Bank is at record levels, with Palestinian villages and homes being razed to the ground. Yet, there have still been no sanctions against Israel and, crucially, no enactment of the occupied territories Bill, despite the Government's big commitments when it was electioneering. I believe that lack of action from this Government is what has driven the Irish citizens on the flotilla to take action themselves and leave their families to board boats in the full awareness that they will likely be illegally captured by the IDF, with their safety not guaranteed. I spoke to Tom Deasy’s sister, Ciara, this morning. Her family believe he will be forcibly transferred to a port in Palestinian territories in the next two hours. They have got no word on his safety and they will not until Israel decides to share that information. Israel holds all the power because it knows there are no consequences for its actions. The past two years have shown us all that. Ciara told me how worried sick she is but, more than that, how proud she is of her brother. She said: The people on the flotilla have been shouting for Palestine for a long time now and that. Now it's time to shout for them in order to get people in power to act. The Taoiseach is one of those people. He has the power to stop munitions going through our airspace, to stop the trade of dual-use goods and to enact the occupied territories Bill. He has the power to act so why will he not?

Sentiment score: -0.11

Asking the Taoiseach to live up to his election promises is not attacking him. That should be the bare minimum. He said that he would enact the occupied territories Bill and all this Government has done for 16 months is find excuses to delay it. Back and forth to the Attorney General, over and over again, looking for advice that we know is the same as that from the Attorney General to the previous Government. We know the advice was to go ahead. Now the Government has run out of steam with that excuse so it is going for the need for all of Europe to act. It is excuse after excuse. Words of condemnation are welcome but what I am asking about is action on the occupied territories Bill and on the divestment Bill. There are so many actions that this Government could take and the brave point that the people on board the flotilla are making is that there needs to be action, not just words. Like Tom's sister said, it is time for the Taoiseach to use his voice and power to do something about this instead of people continuing to feel that they need to put their own lives at risk to try to get aid into Gaza.

Sentiment score: 0.11

There have been no sanctions.

Sentiment score: -0.30