Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House, congratulate him on his appointment and thank him for facilitating this recall. On behalf of the Labour Party group of Senators, I welcome today's special sitting of the Seanad to debate the situations in Gaza and Ukraine. Our group particularly welcomes the recall of the Seanad to debate the crisis in Gaza on which I will focus this afternoon. As Labour Party group leader, I was in contact with the Leader about this over the weekend and I fully support and welcome his decision to recall the Seanad. I am very glad we did this. It gives us an opportunity in this House to scrutinise the record of the Irish Government on Gaza and review the recent appalling events there.

I note that Oxfam and others have pointed out that in recalling the Seanad at this critical juncture, the Seanad has already made a significant statement to the international community so I hope that in some small way this recall can assist in seeking some sort of resolution. I particularly hope that the Israeli Embassy in Ireland will report back to Israel the revulsion expressed by all of us here today at the horrific loss of civilian life in the Gaza Strip.

Like all Irish citizens, my Labour Party colleagues and I are horrified at the numbers of Palestinian civilians who have been killed in the bombardment by Israel of Gaza. We now know that over 1,300 Palestinians have been killed. Others have commented that over 80% of them are civilians, including about 250 children. Two weeks ago, we saw four boys slaughtered on a beach. Since then, we have seen eight Palestinian children killed in a playground which, as the Minister noted, was a particularly heinous attack. We have also seen heinous attacks on civilian populations in UN premises fleeing from bombardment. Again, these are appalling war crimes. As the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign has said, what we are seeing is a collective punishment of a captive population - horror and terror for the people of Gaza on a unimaginable level.

About 240,000 people have been displaced, with nowhere safe to go. UNICEF has stated there is nowhere safe in Gaza - an area that is only 25 miles long and seven miles wide, with closed borders. These borders are not only closed by Israel but also by Egypt which, of course, must accept some complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian population in the enclave. I am particularly glad to hear the Minister say he spoke this morning to the Egyptian Foreign Minister about this.
It is important to be even-handed in the debate. I stand with my Labour Party colleagues, Government colleagues and all others in condemning not only the bombardment by Israel of Gaza but also the rocket attacks launched by Hamas which directly target civilians of Israel and are also an offence in international law. I condemn any use of Palestinian civilians as human shields by Hamas and respect the right of Israel to defend itself against rocket attacks. However, any defence must be conducted in a proportionate and lawful manner. I am appalled at the lack of respect for international law and the rules of law as shown by the Israeli Government in the bombardment in recent weeks. I have already spoken, as have others, about the horrific attacks on UN schools where Palestinian civilians, including large numbers of women and children, have been sheltering. I wrote to the Minister about the matter last week. As the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, has said, the shelling by Israel of schools being used as shelters for displaced Palestinians is outrageous and unjustifiable and demands accountability and justice. However, as the Minister has said, his words do not appear to have had any effect on the Government of Israel or its supporters in the United States who continue to arm them.
Perhaps the saddest thing of all, as we watch with increasing horror the mounting death toll, is the sense of helplessness and déjà vu. I found earlier on my computer a copy of a letter I had sent to a newspaper in 2009, nearly five years ago, explaining my support for the call by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign for a boycott by consumers of Israeli goods and services. I was writing then in the context of a bombardment by Israel against Gaza in which 1,400 Palestinians were killed, at least one third of whom were children. The comments made then could be repeated about the bombardment we have witnessed in recent weeks. Five years ago Mr. John Ging of the United Nations spoke about the humanitarian tragedy that was unfolding and today we hear the words of United Nations Relief and Works Agency staff and medics also talking about a humanitarian tragedy. UNRWA has stated it is at breaking point in trying to cope with the crisis that has unfolded.
What can we do about this? I welcome the Government's provision of aid for the Palestinians. I welcome the statement of the Minister of State, Deputy Sean Sherlock, calling for an immediate ceasefire and emphasising the need to lift the blockade on Gaza and its people and ensure a credible international process to deliver a two-state solution based on pre-1967 borders. I am glad that the Minister has met both the Israeli and Palestinian ambassadors to Ireland to again express to them that this is the Government's position.
I also appreciate that Ireland has a strong record of working on this issue within the European Union. I am very proud that the former Labour Party leader and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, stated full support from Ireland for the recognition of Palestine at the United Nations in September 2011. Therefore, we have led on this issue within the European Union. I appreciate that we have the strongest influence in international affairs when we work within the European Union. As the Minister has outlined, that approach informed our abstention in the United Nations vote last week. Like many others, I was disappointed at how that appeared, but I appreciate that we need to preserve unity within the European UKnion. I also appreciate that given the strong US support for Israel, the European Union is the only power bloc that can effectively take it on at international level. There is an international quartet - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. Ireland is strongest when working within the European Union. However, we need to push more strongly within the European Union for some form of censure for Israel. The Minister attended the last EU Foreign Affairs Council on 22 July, before the attacks by Israel on two separate UN schools and the attacks on children in a playground and on a beach, which clearly cannot be justified on any basis in any international law or rules of war.
We should seek a further meeting of EU Foreign Ministers. We should look to our Italian colleagues who now hold the EU Presidency to see if the European Union can now use its strong links with Israel, particularly in trade and science, as leverage to put more pressure on it to achieve a resolution and, in particular, an immediate ceasefire. We have a direct interest in seeking a resolution. The Minister has pointed out that Ireland sends approximately €10 million per annum to support Palestinian development and infrastructure. For a long time the European union has contributed significant funds to develop Palestinian infrastructure, as is appropriate. However, we have seen that infrastructure systematically destroyed by Israeli bombardment in the 2008-09 period and also in recent weeks.

I believe we need to work more strongly within the EU to achieve this resolution. The Labour Party has long supported the aim of achieving a comprehensive multilateral peace agreement between Israel and Palestine which respects international law, and we support the aim of delivering for the Palestinian people a secure viable state of their own. The priority now is for an immediate ceasefire to prevent any further Palestinian or Israeli civilian death or injury. We believe the international community must then work with Israel and Palestine to deliver a peace agreement which will bring about the lifting of the blockade on Gaza, which is the root cause of this devastating conflict, to end illegal Israeli settlements and to deliver a long-lasting peace to the region based on the two-state principle.

I have not spoken of Ukraine, although the Minister and Senator Cummins have very eloquently done so. There is a message here given that, on Ukraine, we see the EU taking strong action in terms of sanctions on Russia which, again, is backing the separatists in Ukraine just as the US backs Israel. We need to see similar strong action being taken by the EU in order to end the appalling conflict in Gaza.

To end on a hopeful note, at such a bleak time for the Middle East I believe the Irish peace process can serve as some sort of useful indicator that even the most intractable conflicts can be resolved peacefully in the end and that there is never a military solution to this sort of conflict.