ON THURSDAY, THE Dáil debated the Sanctions against the State of Israel Bill 20251, and there will be a vote of TDs on the Bill next Wednesday, 20 May.

My Bill is the first time a proposal of full economic sanctions on the state of Israel itself has come before the Dáil, proposing to prohibit all trade, investment, financial dealings and state-linked economic activity with the entire Israeli regime.

Previous sanctions bills proposed in the Dáil have focused on trade and investment in the occupied territories.

For the past two and a half years, the world has watched the Israeli state inflict a genocidal massacre in Gaza, slaughtering more than 70,000 people, most of whom are women and children, and displacing almost the entire population of more than two million people.

The Israeli military has destroyed 90% of housing in Gaza and devastated most of the civilian infrastructure, schools, colleges, hospitals, water and power plants, creating an almost indescribable humanitarian catastrophe.

Israeli political and military leaders have openly incited the horror visited on Gaza, a fact that contributed to the decision of the International Court of Justice to rule, as early as January 2024, that there was a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza.

Yet despite the unspeakable horror that has unfolded since then, no sanctions whatsoever have been imposed by Ireland or the EU. This is in stark contrast with the sanctions that were immediately imposed on Russia in 2022 when it illegally invaded Ukraine and in 2014 when it annexed Crimea.

The bill that will be voted on next........

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