SEANAD REPORT: Ireland should stop trading with Israel, which had become a rogue state, Mr David Norris (Ind) said.
Joining with speakers on all sides of the House in condemning the assassination of Sheikh Yassin, he said the Hamas figure had been sinister and fanatical, but he had been entitled to due process of law.
"This man was a paraplegic, and it was appalling to see him and seven or eight others targeted in this fashion. There is no question that this will do damage," Senator Norris said.
"A new icon has been created and matters have been stirred up. Sinister domestic political motives are involved."
The United States had a heavy responsibility because it did not condemn the killing. Since President Bush's election to office, the situation in this part of the Middle East had gone steadily downhill because the Israeli prime minister "operated in the penumbra of morality" created by the American leader.
Senator Norris said there was one thing Ireland could do to register its views about the assassination and that was to operate the human rights provisions of the external agreement of the European Union.
President Bush was perfectly entitled to come here, but the citizens of this country also had rights. "I am horrified, as an elected representative, to learn that our Government is going to hand a licence to kill to agents of Mr Gunslinger Bush," Senator Norris said.
Mr Eamon Scanlon (FF): "Rubbish."
Mr Norris: "This is being done and they are saying they have diplomatic immunity, so they cannot be prosecuted." It was not tolerable that that warmonger should come here and bring his troops with a licence to kill decent people who were protesting against what he stood for, added Mr Norris.
Mr Michael Finucane (FG) urged the Taoiseach, in his capacity as president of the EU, to call in the Israeli ambassador and ask him what the hell was going on out there.
Mr John Dardis (PD), the deputy Government leader in the House, said he wanted to make it clear that his side of the House was as strong as the other in denouncing the sheikh's murder. "Terrorism from the State is no less terrorism than terrorism from any private army," he said.
Mr Paschal Mooney (FF) said one had to ask where Israeli policy would lead. "I am fearful not only for events in the Middle East but for the impact on the towns and cities of Europe, given what happened in Madrid," he said.
"A heavy burden of responsibility rests on the shoulders of Prime Minister Sharon and his cabinet which, as we all know, is dominated by hardline, hawkish elements which do not fully represent the views of the vast majority of the Israeli people."
Mr Labhrás Ó Murchú (FF) said that for the US in particular to use a word like "uncomfortable" about this terrible atrocity was certainly prostituting language as he understood it.