Government must act at the UN on Labour Gaza motion - The Labour Party
This followed a call too from our President Michael D Higgins for an Emergency Special Session of the UN General Assembly.
I want to thank members and supporters who showed up for our Protest for Peace outside the Dáil. The government accepted our motion but we must keep the pressure on to ensure the global community takes action to stop the genocide.
More than 55,000 people – including 15,000 children –have been killed in Gaza since 7th October 2023, and a further 290,000 children are on the brink of death.
Words fail to describe the wickedness of using starvation as a weapon of war against children. But that is what’s happening in Gaza as Israel continues to inflict unthinkable horror on the people of Palestine.
History will remember our actions, not our words.
Ireland is a small country but we have fierce diplomatic power and we must use it now to end the horrors that continue to unfold in front of our eyes in Gaza. That’s why the Labour Party is calling on Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to do more, to stand with Palestinian children and civilians. It is our moral obligation to raise the plight of the Palestinian people to the United Nations to pave the way for peace. To pave the way for the violence to end. To pave the way for a ceasefire for Palestine.
The Government must now table an emergency resolution at the UN General Assembly, noting the failure of the Security Council to protect the people of Gaza and calling for collective measures to stop Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign.
The devastation in Gaza is the ultimate test for the UN Security Council. To date, it has failed miserably.
The responsibility for preventing the gravest of war crimes which Israel continues to wage on Gaza falls not only on the UN but on the entire world. Ireland must now force action to end the genocide.
Unfortunately, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’s bone fides when it comes to acting for Gaza have been massively eroded over the past six months.
In the context of the general election campaign, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil promised on national televised debates that they would enact the Occupied Territories Bill if elected. Yet six months on and only now is the Tánaiste belatedly seeking to act. We are prepared to sit during the summer to pass this law.
If we really believe that too many people are dying, the Government must use the all peaceful levers available to us to demand that international humanitarian law is respected, including isolating Israel internationally.
The Opposition are gifting this Government the opportunity to be a global leader, to be remembered in the history books as a nation that acted for the right of Palestinian people to exist. I hope that they take it.
Thank you again for your support and solidarity.
Duncan Smith TD
Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Trade