I have participated in a lot of Europe Day debates. In fact, the first time I ever spoke in the Dáil was before I was a TD when as an MEP I was invited to address the House on Europe Day. Of all the set piece annual debates we have, this is the most sickening. Every time we get the same platitudes trotted out about Europe being a peace project and the European Union being a defender of democracy and being founded on the basis of fundamental rights. This bears no resemblance to the actually existing European Union. In particular, in terms of the biggest crime that is happening now in the world, namely, the genocide that been going on in Palestine for more than two years and the EU's role in that. We are all expected to just ignore that. We heard earlier from Deputy McAuliffe that he would prefer if the European Union really did something about the genocide but, at the same time, he accepts that, well, that is it and different people have different opinions and so on. Do not try to claim that it is a peace project if it is involved in supporting, facilitating and arming genocide. Let us drop the pretence that it is a peace project when it has a strategy called ReArm Europe and when it is, as Deputy Boyd Barrett outlined, a driving factor in the process of militarisation, which the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, tried to deny by suggesting it is somehow not true. It is there in black and white. He can go and read their strategy documents. He can look at the figures in terms of the extra amounts spent. Let us not hear talk about the European Union being a bastion of democracy when the most powerful, dominant state in the Union, Germany, right now is treating people, including an Irish citizen, Daniel Tatlow-Devally, as a terrorist for an act of civil disobedience. It is treating people as terrorists for honourable, legal acts of civil disobedience trying to prevent the continued commission of genocide. The speaking of Irish is banned by the German state at Palestine protests. Let us not hear about fundamental rights when the Fortress Europe project is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in the Mediterranean Sea every single year. It is an absolute joke and, of course, there is no greater illustration of this gap between the rhetoric we hear once a year or more often, unfortunately, and the reality of the situation in Gaza. We are two and a half years into an accelerated genocide carried out by Israel against the Palestinians. There is a so-called ceasefire now, but people in Gaza are being murdered every single day. Documented killings in Gaza now stand at over 72,000 people, with 21,000 children, which is the highest percentage death toll of children in any war. UNICEF has said that tens of thousands of babies born in Gaza since the start of the war have been delivered into hell. As of February last year, 25,000 wounded children had no surviving family. The reality is going to be worse than all of those nightmarish figures when the truth comes out. Israel has resumed its slaughter of civilians in Lebanon. It is breaking its ceasefire there on a daily basis too. What is the European Union doing about any of that? Nothing. Nothing to sanction the State of Israel. Let us compare that to how swiftly sanctions were imposed on Russia after its illegal invasion of Ukraine, proving that it can do it, but instead it has spectated while the genocide has continued. It has looked on as European countries are some of the biggest, after the US, deliverers of weapons to Israel and it has treated Israel as a favoured nation in terms of trade, effectively equivalent to as if it was in the European Union. The Government has delayed and refused to act on the occupied territories Bill. Why? Cowardice and a calculated decision to prioritise financial ties with Israel and the US over human life. That is why we are moving our Bill next week for comprehensive sanctions on the State of Israel. Why? Because of genocide, apartheid and crimes against humanity. It is time for this State to act. The Government knows that public opinion is strongly in favour of that. Will it ignore that as well as the genocide or will it finally take meaningful action? Will it allow a conscience vote on our Bill? If the Government can have a conscience vote on the issue of abortion, why can it not have one on the issue of genocide?

Sentiment score: -0.06