'Irish Government must act to get essential aid to Gaza'
Today in the Dail, the Labour Party will ask the Government to use every lever at its disposal to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza through a UN-mandated peacekeeping force.
More than 55,000 people – including 15,000 children – have been killed in Gaza since 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.
The Labour Party is calling on Fine Gael and Fianna Fail 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.
If the Government accepts our proposals, it will be forced to 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 the genocidal campaign of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
The devastation in Gaza is the ultimate test for the UN Security Council.
Unfortunately, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail'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, both parties promised on national televised debates they would enact the Occupied Territories Bill if elected. Yet six months on and only now is the Tanaiste belatedly seeking to act.
The Opposition is gifting the Government the opportunity to be a global leader, so Ireland will be remembered in the history books as a nation that acted for the right of Palestinian people to exist. I hope the opportunity is taken.
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