Hildegarde Naughton (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, to the House. Senators should be aware that Ireland was the first EU member state to declare back in 1980 that a solution to the conflict in the Middle East had to be based on a fully sovereign state of Palestine independent of and coexisting with Israel, and that remains the case today. The Government fully supports the two-state solution.
For this to come about, however, there needs to be political will and that is currently not present. What we have at the moment is recurring Hamas attacks on Israel followed by an overwhelming and disproportionate Israeli response. In that regard, I would note The Times of Israelreported in June that Hamas had actually arrested a splinter group for firing rockets into Israel. There is also the developing possibility that another splinter group, or at least one not acting with the authority of the Hamas leadership, was responsible for the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teenagers in recent times, a crime which did much to trigger the Israeli military action.
The Government, through the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, has expressed through the Israeli ambassador the grave concerns of the Irish Government and people at the escalation of violence in Gaza, and at the atrocity which saw a UN-run school hit and at least 15 civilians killed and more than 200 wounded, including many children. The Minister conveyed to the ambassador that the attacks on civilian institutions such as schools and hospitals are utterly unacceptable and contrary to international law, and must stop immediately.
Senators will remember in our own history the radicalisation of many young people in Northern Ireland by the unjust and oftentimes brutal treatment that was meted out to the Nationalist and Catholic communities. This manifested itself in ways both political and militant. Among others, the atrocity that was Bloody Sunday did nothing but fuel hate and suspicion for decades.

Rather than ending alleged Hamas terrorism against Israel, the last two weeks of assaults on the civilian population of Gaza and Israel's previous treatment of its inhabitants have done more to fuel radicalism in that part of the world than any other event. Israel and the Palestinian authorities will eventually have to demilitarise, talk and agree to live in peace. That will involve accepting difficult truths on both sides. That willingness to accept is far away at present. We are and have been absolutely supportive of the State of Israel and I am sure all of us condemn the firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas or by any other group. The firing of such rockets, given the hugely effective Iron Dome defence system operated by Israel is, in my view, intended to provoke the State of Israel into its usual disproportionate response, thus ensuring that Israel's actions are seen to be unjustifiable.

As I indicated earlier, while we fully support the State of Israel, that does not mean we should be uncritical in that support. No member state of the European Union would ever countenance any act that would imperil the existence of the State of Israel. Ireland certainly will not. However, neither will we accept the barbarity of the recent Israeli response. It is in breach of international law and utterly counterproductive and destabilising.

There has been much loose talk and unwarranted criticism of the Government's abstention on the Human Rights Council's vote to establish and send an investigatory team to Gaza. The position in international fora of this nature is absolutely clear - an abstention is not seen as a blocking vote but as agreement with the principle but an expression of dissatisfaction with the method by which the principle is to be carried out. The Government was happy with the idea of such a mission but was not convinced it would be effective given the time it would take to become operational and the presence of other existing methods such as by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. This existing mechanism would have achieved an inquiry without all the additional baggage. Additionally, there was understandable disquiet among the EU group, including Ireland, with the language in the text of the resolution.

The Human Rights Council's investigation and report by Richard Goldstone, on the previous Israeli invasion of Gaza in 2008, remains controversial. Of course the Israeli authorities should co-operate with any investigation. However, in circumstances where the text of the resolution does not even mention Hamas, they will not. The purpose of any such mission should be the speedy and impartial investigation of human rights violations in the area and by all sides. If, as suggested in some quarters, that Hamas was not responsible for some of the rocket attacks or the killing and murder of the three Israeli teenagers, surely the Human Rights Council should have provided terms of reference that would have allowed an investigation of these matters also. The accusations - some supported by UN agencies - that Hamas is hiding weapons in schools and hospitals should also have been investigated. The resolution did not propose any of that.

Notwithstanding all of that, and to be clear, I echo the comments made yesterday by the UN Secretary General that the Israeli actions, particularly the outrageous shelling of the UN compounds where civilians were sheltering, were outrageous. The actions were unjustifiable and demand accountability and justice.