Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 10 December 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade

Palestine and Israel: Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel

2:40 pm

Ms Hilary Minch:

Little of what the members will hear today will be news to them. They are all well informed and many of them have travelled to Palestine and Israel in recent years and months. Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan has recently returned from Yanoun. They will have heard testimony from witnesses, including Palestinian civil society, Israeli human rights groups, politicians and church leaders.

In September I travelled back to the little village of Yanoun in the north of the West Bank, near Nablus where I had served for five months in 2011. When we previously appeared before the committee in September 2012, my colleague Emmet Sheerin presented the story of Yanoun. I love to speak about Yanoun because it is such a special place. It is a tiny village; it is the smallest surviving village in Palestine. It is at the end of a beautiful valley filled with flowers. It could be such a special place. It is surrounded on three sides by the settlement of Itamar and its associated outposts. In 2002 all the villagers of Yanoun were forcibly displaced after a long campaign of violence. People were shot. Animals were killed. There was vandalism. They were all forced to flee the village.

The people of Yanoun are very resilient and were determined to go back to their village. They were able to return with the support of international and, importantly, Israeli human rights activists who provide a protective presence. There is now a house in Yanoun where EAPPI has a permanent base. We will stay there for as long as is needed. I wish we could leave next week but we will stay for as long as we are needed.

The main problem facing Yanoun is that the villagers have lost most of their land due to the settlements. According to Rashed Murrad, mayor of Yanoun, before the establishment of the settlements, the villagers had nothing to be scared of, but now they live in constant threat of violence and forced displacement.

Since 2003, the EAPPI programme has had a permanent presence in Yanoun. During my five months in Yanoun I witnessed almost on a daily basis violence from the settlers, the pollution of the well where people got their drinking water, the Israeli army entering in the middle of the night with sound bombs, aggression, vandalism, but most of all the loss of the land. The farmers with their sheep and goats cannot even go to graze their animals or pick their olives.

In recent years it has become a little quieter in Yanoun. There is slightly less violence than previously, but unfortunately other villages in the region are experiencing much worse violence and levels of attacks. The important thing to say about the violence by the settlers is that it is often accompanied by the Israeli army. Settlers and the army work very closely together to intimidate and threaten the Palestinians on their land.

Our presence and the presence of Israeli human rights observers provide some breathing space but it is not a solution. The only solution for Yanoun, the other villages and Palestine as a whole is the implementation of international law which would result in an end to the occupation and the dismantling of the illegal settlements. Only then could everyone begin to live normal lives.

Every year, when I return to visit Yanoun, I drink the lovely sweet Palestinian tea with the women, eat delicious bread and cheese and watch the children growing up. Palestinians have said to me repeatedly, "What can we do?" There is an awful sense of hopelessness. People are devastated after the summer attacks on Gaza. It is up to us as EAs, as civilians and as parliamentarians to do the best we can to ensure that international law is upheld.

We have two main requests today. I will deal with the first one and Ms Derbyshire will deal with the second one. We urge the Government to unconditionally and immediately recognise a Palestinian state. We have heard indications that the Government will not oppose the motion being debated tonight, which is superb news. We also ask members to go a step further and speak on behalf of the committee that the Government should recognise Palestine and also write to the Minister in that regard.

I have a few points about the recognition, if I may-----

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