Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald clashed in the Dáil over her party’s Bill to prevent the Central Bank having any involvement with Israeli bonds.
The row followed a debate earlier on a Labour Party motion to call for a new emergency special session at the UN General Assembly and for the establishment of an international peacekeeping force in Gaza.
It also followed disruption in the Dáil on Tuesday night when the House was suspended and a protester arrested as demonstrators were escorted from the chamber after they disrupted debate on the Restrictive Financial Measures (State of Israel) Bill.
They chanted “shame” and “disgraceful” as Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said the Bill was unworkable and inconsistent with EU law.
Sinn Féin voting against first-stage Bill banning fox hunting ‘deeply troubling’, Social Democrats say
Rise of backward-looking nationalism is not the preserve of the populist right. Just ask Sinn Féin
Minister objected to second term for Arts Council director amid fallout over botched IT project
Minister did not consent to second term for Arts Council director Maureen Kennelly, PAC told
During Leaders’ Questions Ms McDonald described his speech as “shameful” and said he “gave weak, watery, mealy-mouthed and baseless excuses for your opposition to the legislation”.
She said it was “bogus” for him to say he is advised the Bill might be inconsistent with EU law. “We have over 20 pages of independent, robust legal opinion clearly stating that the Bill is compliant with Irish law, European law and international law.”
Ms McDonald said it demonstrated that “the emperor has no clothes. It’s precisely the tactic you use to delay and hollow out the Occupied Territories Bill.”
But the Taoiseach said there is a pattern from Sinn Féin “to try and drive a wedge” between the Government and the people of Ireland “in respect of what Israel is doing”.
He accused her of “bandying words around like ‘facilitating’, ‘complicit’ and ‘genocide’, which are false.”
He said it was a “false narrative”. He insisted the “Central Bank does not approve and does not issue or sell or oversee the sale of Israeli bonds”.
In the debate on the Labour motion Tánaiste Simon Harris said the Government “will act” on the party’s call for a new emergency special session of the UN General Assembly.
The Labour motion also calls for the establishment of an international peacekeeping force in Gaza under the “uniting for peace resolution”.
The Tánaiste said the last time this was used was at the time of the Korean War in the 1950s when all parties and key members of the UN Security Council were in agreement.
“Sadly, similar circumstances do not exist today. It’s not a reason to not try,” but while the general assembly can recommend action it only becomes binding when the Security Council “propels action” and it “has failed in this regard”.
But he pledged to work to “advance this motion”.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said this motion is “a bold proposal and a big ask”. She asked when the Government would bring a motion forward to establish an emergency session as current procedures are not working quickly enough.
The motion speaks of genocide and she said it was important that the House agreed on this. The Government is not opposing the motion.
Labour foreign affairs spokesman Duncan Smith said many in the Israeli government claimed they are at war. “This is not a war. This is the systematic destruction of a people. It’s collective punishment,” that the Netanyahu government has to answer for, he said.
Labour’s Mark Wall said that “every 40 minutes a child is killed in Gaza. By the time we finish this motion at least three children will have been killed in Gaza. It’s a war on children”.
Sinn Féin foreign affairs spokesman Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said he believed in the two-state solution but “it is hard to look at situation and not wonder what will be left”.
The West Bank is “whittled away” and Gaza “is completely destroyed, more than demolished, incinerated”.
He said genocide is a “very loaded word” that should not be used lightly. “But how can you escape the conclusion that there is a deliberate attempt to destroy Gaza and to eliminate the people of Gaza.”
His party colleague Pádraig Mac Lochlainn pointed to a “deeply disturbing” Israeli opinion poll showing that 82 per cent of people “support the ethnic cleansing of two million people of Gaza from their homeland”, and that 65 per cent support the biblical command “that all men women and children should be killed and cleared from the land”.
Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney said “countries around the world are waiting for each other to take the lead. They are unwilling to stick their heads out for Palestine.”
She said the Government “must push the countries of the global north into action”. She hit out at the Tánaiste’s call during the debate “to join together and not politicise the issue or position this as opposition equals good, government equals bad”.
Ms Gibney said she took “huge exception because we are not the ones politicising this issue. You are.” She said her version of that is “genocide equals bad, action equals good. Now act.”
