Debate contribution: End Israeli Impunity in Gaza

Debate contribution by Ms Joanne Bunting on 24 June 2025.

MLA: Ms Joanne Bunting
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 24 June 2025
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: End Israeli Impunity in Gaza
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5047379

Text

I have had enough of listening for months in the House to misinformation and propaganda with nary a word about what the Israelis have suffered. Of course, we do not want to see any people, especially children, starving or hurt, but let us get real about what led to this. Some in the House are all too willing to gloss over that. All this comes back to Hamas. It all starts there, particularly following the absolute horrors of 7 October 2023. I do not recall motions coming from those on the opposite Benches to condemn that, when literally hundreds of men, women and children were kidnapped, raped, mutilated and murdered. I do not recall an outpouring of sympathy or outrage from the opposite Benches for the Israeli children who were being brutally tortured and murdered. There was no outcry about or even a mention of the abhorrent videos showing young Israeli women being kidnapped, screaming and crying for help as they were carried away on the back of mopeds. There was no outrage for the woman — one of many — who was gang-raped and killed in the back of a truck, her stricken body paraded and then left for all to see her degradation. Some in here have the gall to lecture Israel about its humanity — no. Let us put the focus where it should be: on Hamas and the terrorist regimes that support it. Maybe that is too close to home for some. Remko Leemhuis is the director of the American Jewish Committee in Berlin. In the aftermath of the October attacks, he visited Israel as part of a delegation. He said:
"Doors were riddled with bullet holes everywhere. In the rooms behind them, people who were hiding were murdered ... You can also see how systematically the terrorists went from house to house and killed or kidnapped everyone ... Documents have been recovered from dead Hamas fighters which show that they had a great deal of information. They knew who lived in which house, how many people were there, how many pets. It was all broken down in detail and planned far in advance ... So far, 300 people — mainly women and girls — have not been identified. Their condition makes it impossible. They were so badly mangled after they were murdered that they cannot be identified. To this day, body parts are still being found in the areas that were attacked. A few days before we visited one kibbutz, a baby was found in an oven there, having been burned to death."
If Members wish to go down that road, the least they should do is make it clear whether they are pro-Palestine or pro-Hamas, because their motion does not make that apparent, other than to suggest that they are anti-Israel.
Absolutely, and there is no mention of that in the motion. Assertions in the motion are untrue. Let us be clear, if Members actually want to debate the facts: aid is allowed into Gaza and is getting into Gaza, but Hamas is stealing it. The motion references the targeting of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and schools, wilfully and blindly ignoring the fact that Hamas is hiding in hospitals and schools and using the people in them as human shields. It is building bases in and beneath them. If those people cared about the people for whom they purport to fight, would those brave Hamas volunteers be stealing their food and hiding in tunnels under their children's schools? Over 600 days on, there are still hostages, and the remains of those murdered have not been returned to their families. Let us remember that Israel is the only democracy in the region, the only country there with a free society based on Western values and the only one with free and fair elections. Israel has a right to go after terrorists who are inflicting horrific acts on its people and attacking its nation. Hamas knew exactly what it was getting into, because the whole world knows that Israel operates by FAFO. It has to because it is surrounded by nations that want to see it obliterated and wiped off the face of the earth. Every November, we remember — well, some of us do — our war dead and the human cost. Part of that is remembrance of the Holocaust and the horrors inflicted on the Jews by the Nazis. Jews living here — our citizens — are now being terrorised. They are living in fear, as antisemitism is on the rise again. Do Members find that acceptable? Do they consider that motions such as this will make the lives of our Jewish community any easier? Do they even care? There is zero condemnation of Hamas and its activity in the motion — zero — but maybe that is because birds of a feather flock together, given Sinn Féin's inextricable links. Hamas is a terrorist organisation that exploits and places in danger the very people whom it purports to represent, and it is nothing but a puppet for Iran, the biggest sponsor of terror in the world. As I said, I really do not want Palestinians to suffer, but Hamas could stop what it started. It has chosen not to. When Hamas is defeated and yet another terrorist organisation has failed, the Palestinians will be free, and the world will be a better place.

899 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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