While regular collapses of the Northern Ireland Assembly have frequently rendered Stormont vacant, the more conventional absence of members for summer lasts from 5 July to 31 August. Yesterday saw the first debating session of the new term, and pro-Palestine campaigners were keen to ensure the Gaza genocide was on the agenda. Local activist group Mothers Against Genocide organised a protest demanding that our politicians do more to end the active participation of the North of Ireland in so-called Israel’s atrocities. This coincided with a letter being handed to Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) featuring the demands of Mothers Against Genocide. A settler-colonial mentality persists among these parties, and that extends to their backing of the Zionist entity’s settler-colonial apartheid regime.