Sinn Féin TD reaches millions with heartfelt speech

A powerful speech given by a Cork TD on the day Ireland recognised the State of Palestine has been viewed by several million worldwide as the genocide in Gaza continues.

The formal recognition came on Wednesday, May 28 and during Dáil proceedings that day the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and a number of TDs stepped forward to issue statements regarding the ongoing war. Among them was a visibly emotional Thomas Gould, who is a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála for Cork North-Central.

Mr Gould condemned the war crimes being committed in Gaza, the sheer scale of the casualties and the barbarity that’s been seen around the world on social media.

In an emotional tone, Mr Gould described a particularly shocking attack last week when an Israeli airstrike using a US-supplied bomb killed at least 45 people in an area housing displaced Palestinians in Rafah.

He said: “The photographs, the pictures and the videos that come from [Rafah whilst] you hear the screams of people, screaming as the Israeli government burned men, women and children alive. And the world stands by while 15,000 children are being slaughtered, 35,000 men and women and children,” he told the Dublin parliament.

“It’s unbelievable, the genocide that is happening. A child with no head, a child with no head! And the Israeli government say it’s a mistake. A mistake? I hope that Benjamin Netanyahu burns in hell the same way those children and their families burned...

“Because what is happening now, not alone is it apartheid, not alone is it atrocity and war crime. It’s just horrific. It’s just horrific what they [the Israelis] are doing. Where is their soul? Where is the soul of the Israeli people that allows their government to do this to children? Where is their humanity?”

“The Israeli people, the Jewish people, after everything the Jewish people have suffered down over the decades [and] to do this to other human beings, human beings.

“But in the eyes of Netanyahu and this far right Israeli government, Palestinians are [not] human beings. But today here, the Irish people say, we recognise Palestine, we recognise they are human beings just like every one of us.

“Shame on Israel, Shame on what you’ve done and it will never be forgotten.”

A video clip showing the speech has had at least four million views on various social media with people around the world expressing their admiration for the Cork TD’s powerful words.

On Friday, several ‘bridgils” –- vigils for Gaza at bridges –– took place throughout Ireland, while an emergency rally on Monday also saw protesters hold a ‘collective scream’ outside the headquarters of BBC in Belfast in protest at their coverage.

Organised by the Belfast-based Mothers Against Genocide group, a spokesperson for the group said: “Rafah is under attack and the western world remains silent.

“They aren’t listening to the screams coming out of Rafah. They are ignoring our pleas for sanctions.”

They added: “We demand action! We demand sanctions! We demand truth! We demand an end to this genocide!”

The rally also saw participants holding effigies of dead children wrapped in bloody shrouds, to highlight the killing of children in Israeli strikes.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Matt Carthy TD, has warned that sanctions are ‘clearly necessary’ to enforce the ruling of the International Court of Justice that Israel must immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah.

“If we are to see this order enforced and any relief delivered to the Palestinian people of Gaza then we must see the groundswell of global support for a ceasefire matched with meaningful diplomatic and economic sanctions against Israel until they are brought into compliance with international humanitarian law,” he said.

“Too many world leaders, including within the European Union, have to date failed to show a willingness to hold Israel to account – where Europe refuses to act, Ireland must follow South Africa’s example and become leaders.”

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