You are the one doing that.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Then have a referendum about it.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, lauded the European Union as being a place of values. He talked about its commitment to international law and to the rule of law and was somewhat aghast that people suggested Europe was guilty of a move towards militarisation. I put it to the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, that if he was to characterise the major value of the European Union currently, it is precisely that it is the biggest contributor to a massive increase in global arms expenditure, which is now up to €2,887 billion, which is €2.8 trillion. The biggest contributor to that increase, with a 14% increase last year, is the European Union. That should hardly surprise us because Ursula von der Leyen, a former arms seller when she was a minister in Germany, selling arms to all and sundry, has argued for the rearmament of Europe and for massive increases in European expenditure on weapons. This is what Europe is actually doing. By the way, it spends four times more on weapons than Russia. Then add to this the trillion dollars the United States spends. Clearly, militarisation and spending money on weapons does not do anything to deter war. That is very clear when we look at the balance of global arms expenditure. Where this notion of commitments to international law or any kind of values is exposed as complete nonsense is when we look at the European Union's relationship with the State of Israel and at the crimes Israel is committing. Even before the genocidal assault on Gaza, Israel had shown itself to be the world's number one enemy of international law. It refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but we all know it has about 200 nuclear weapons. Israel does not think that law applies to it. Trump thinks it is okay to bomb Iran, as does Israel does, because Iran might have nuclear weapons but Israel will not even sign the international treaty to restrict their use. Since 1948 when it ethnically cleansed nearly 1 million Palestinians, Israel has denied under international law the right to return that Palestinians have, leaving millions of Palestinians displaced all over the Middle East. It has a law explicitly denying the Palestinians the right self determination and has granted that right only to people of the Jewish faith. It presides over an apartheid regime, according to every serious human rights organisation, and since 2016, it has been collectively punishing the two million people of Gaza with a criminal siege. Then we had the genocidal massacre of the past few years. Who provides the weapons? The European Union and, to a very significant extent, Germany. As we speak I have just had a message from Mimi Tatlow-Golden. Her son, an Irish citizen, was with four other people protesting against Elbit Systems, the major provider of weapons to Israel to commit genocide against the Palestinians, in what was an act of civil disobedience where there was no threat of violence to anybody. His mother was saying that in the court at the moment the judge is likening them to terrorists and organised criminals, and really setting them up as horrible, dangerous people. This makes it very worrying about their treatment. The family appeals again to the Irish Government to send monitors to the trial, which is an absolute travesty of justice. The European Union is showing complete moral bankruptcy in the face of genocide, the worst crime it is possible to commit. Next week, the Sanctions against the State of Israel Bill will come before the Dáil. It states that because Ireland is a signatory to the Genocide Convention, it has a legal obligation not just to punish the crime of genocide, but to prevent it, and to use all reasonable means to do so. The Bill calls for across-the board-economic sanctions. Will the Government support the Bill next week when it comes before the House? I very much doubt it.
Sentiment score: -0.18