Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Chairman has a difficult task so I will confine my remarks to one question for the Minister, whose presence is very welcome. It is 67 years since the United Nations recognised, by a substantial majority, the right of the State of Israel to exist. There are still countries, many of which are neighbours of the European Union or close neighbours in the Middle East, that deny to this very day the right of Israel to exist or of the Jewish people to have a homeland. Given the turmoil that is now in the region, the failure of successive attempts to broker a two-state deal acceptable to people living in the area and the ongoing hardship being caused, particularly to people living in Gaza, can a new initiative be launched by the European Union to deal in the first instance with those Arab states that refuse to recognise the State of Israel? Their refusal is without precedent.

I can think of no other country that is denied recognition by the international community of its very existence. Whatever about the boundaries or the borders, can an initiative be taken by the European Union with the intention of breaking the logjam, and it is clear there is a logjam, and asking those Arab states, first, to recognise the right of a state of Israel to exist and, second, to stop funding fundamentalist organisations that constantly attack the State of Israel in its current configuration from both southern Lebanon and Gaza?