Ireland wants expansion of the definition of genocide under the Geneva Convention, says Taoiseach

Ireland wants an expansion of the definition of genocide to bring home the enormity of what Israel is doing in Gaza, the Taoiseach has told the Dáil.

The Israeli Government, with its “far-right elements”, is "committing genocide in Gaza right now," Micheál Martin said.

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik echoed: "It is genocide." She acknowledged, on the first anniversary of Ireland recognising the state of Palestine, that the Government has led on the issue.

The Taoiseach said Ireland, Spain and Norway had initiated recognition, followed by Slovenia, in partnership with the Arab states.

But he admitted that Ireland has failed to persuade many other countries that it targeted diplomatically to join the recognition initiative.

"We tried to get as many countries as we possibly could on board, and to persuade as many other EU member states ass possible," Mr Martin said.

"We didn't get as many as we wanted at the time."

It is understood that Ireland believed it had commitments from more than twice as many countries as finally signed up, only for the numbers to wither away.

The Taoiseach added: "We're hoping that we will broaden the criteria by which Genocide is judged by the Geneva Convention."

Some countries have been claiming that Israel's "slaughter" of Palestinians, as Mr Martin put it, does not constitute genocide, which means a policy of deliberate attempted extermination of an entire people.

He stressed that Ireland was also progressing the Occupied Territories Bill, but said that the Opposition, when it was passed, would say that it is "only symbolic" and more should be done.

The stand-in leader of the Social Democrats, Cian O'Callaghan, said Gaza was being "methodically and systematically erased by Israel in its systematic campaign, without restriction”.

The Social Democrats has suspended one of its members, Eoin Hayes TD, who profited from the sale of shares in a company whose products have bene used by the Israeli army to better target Palestinians.

Mr Hayes did not tell the truth to his colleagues or the media about his holding.

Mr Martin dismissed claims from the Social Democrats and Sinn Féin that the Irish Central Bank was facilitating the sale of Israeli "war bonds", and should be prevented from doing so.

The Central Bank is part of the European Central; Bank, he said, "and is independent of Government too, by the way".

"They don't sell Israeli bonds." The Central Bank instead "approves the prospectus" for the sale of the bonds, as it is required to do, he said.

"The Irish Central Bank is not approving anything."

The Taoiseach said suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement would be "a powerful message to Israel".

He added: "It's hard to comprehend that when we first called for a ceasefire there was not a lot of support from member states."