Senior ministers concerned about effects of Occupied Territories Bill.

No, nothin against Muslims, and also, nothing against Israeli jews….leave them alone to sort out their hatred of each other. That's my motto….I think that is far more real/sincere than taking sides pretending you actually give a damn.

That’s not how the law works though.

What has this to do with the occupied territories bill?

Nothing, it's just a bit of baiting and deflection. Maybe he's genuinely worried about his job but you just can't turn a blind eye to the murder of 20K children.

It makes you a bit heartless imo if you don't care about children and innocents being genocided. That's a shocking view.

You can take a stance on these issues while at the same time acknowledge the fact we have no real say or influence over these events, this bill to me is nothing more than virtue signaling, a chance to feel good about ourselves and show how compassionate, caring and just we are, yet it would do nothing but damage our own interests and people for nothing.

Whats happening in Gaza is terrible, same as whats happening in Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen I mean the list goes on and on.

Why choose this as a hill to die on? the world is a terrible place for lots of people not just the palestinians, thats just the reality of things, its life, as long as human beings exist were going to be killing each other, we have this fetish here with Israel and Palestine and I honestly think we have to get over it, we can continue to be vocal on these types of issues, condemn them when they happen, but in the end we have no influence and can't stop any of it.

The bill was here long before Oct 7th and it will pass.

The claims of virtue signalling and posturing sounds suspiciously like it's coming from the hard right. We hear this type of stuff all the time from the likes of Farage, GB News and the Daily Telegraph in the UK. According to this narrative, the entire Dáil, the Irish media and most of the Irish public are virtue signallers (for their attitudes towards Israel and Gaza).

As you point out, Nelson Mandela was a considered a terrorist for decades by a certain section - even after he became President of South Africa.

So the situation moves you and shocks you, just not enough to do anything about it, which is fine. I'm sure you are genuine in your sadness at the situation, and nobody would ever expect you to do anything if you didn't feel moved to.

But other people who are moved and shocked by it like you, but decide to do something about it - they are all disingenuous and spoofing? At what point does that that happen? If you decided tomorrow to give a euro to a charity helping kids in Gaza, does that make your admitted sadness at the situation somehow disengenous?

Btw (not you), but for other people trumpeting Sudan war, most people in Ireland don't know where it is on a map, or have no idea about the war there, and probably aren't curious about it. Why would they be?

There is hardly a person in Ireland who doesn't know about the Holy Land though, we all learned about it growing up, and probably have more of a feeling of knowing the region of being more curious about it.

I recognize loads of the names of the places there from primary school religion class. Israel are a part of Europe (not geographically), they are in Eurovision, most sporting competitions, and they happen to be carrying out probably the worst civilian atrocity a European nation has committed since the holocaust, their leaders are wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity, and ye expect that not to catch people's attention?? Bonkers.

I notice the same lads arent on the Russia thread bashing those who are against the Russian occupation and telling them they shouldn't because they aren't vocal on the war in Sudan? Youre little "gotcha's" aren't as clever as ye think and highlight yer own hypocrisy, not anyone else's.

But it's Israel that is denying the Gazans any rights. Have you thought this through?

There's a lot of techies on here worried about their jobs as opposed to children being bombed, shot, starved and dying of hypothermia. How they can do that is baffling.

I cannot find any details of the Senior Ministers who are worried about this Bill. Could someone post their names please?

I actually don't believe they exist. Seems like a made-up story. Reminds me of '' an unnamed Govt spokesman said …''

You're a gas man with a razor sharp wit, when is the standup dvd coming out?

Not ignoring a genocide is "doing something", however small. Giving a euro to a charity is doing something, or sending an aid package. Writing to a politician is doing something. Plenty of "virtue signallers" did the same for Ukraine, you may have been one of them yourself, but it was grand then because ... Um actually I don't know, can you explain it?

Even you, by not ignoring this genocide and writing about it to strangers on the internet is "doing something", and keeping it in the consciousness of people on this site. Thanks for your diligent work

You seem confused. The Israelis closed their embassy, the Russians didn't.