Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and apologise for being absent. I had to go to the House for a question. I regret that I missed the presentation but I am reasonably familiar with it because I have visited the territories on a number of occasions. I have another angle on the issue. I think it is appalling that human rights abuses continue with impunity. Seemingly, nobody can influence those who matter to make them to stop.

There are a number of reasons for that. One is the number of competing atrocities globally at the moment that have taken the focus away from Palestine in recent years. In turn, this has affected any possibility of there being a global focus on the issue, notwithstanding the fact that these are very serious issues and serious human rights abuses are continuing, which they should not be.

Let us go back to the discussions we have had in this committee on numerous occasions in the past. There is no focus on that area at present. No one is saying we must do something about this. There is no peace process in place. There is no stage on which the various protagonists can address their issues, whether they be right or wrong. There must be some structure whereby those who are aggrieved can make their case. This has to happen at local level, in New York or Washington or wherever. That is missing at present. We know from our experience in trying to transition from war to peace that if the structure is not in place to further a peace element, the trickle-down does not materialise and there is no focus on the need to address the human rights issues or the issues that are causing the problems.

I will finish by saying what I have said many times in the past in respect of other situations. As long as people focus on the past they are never going to resolve the future, but there is no focus on the present at the moment in respect of that subject. I do not pretend to be an expert in the area but I know that if there is no structure in place to address the issues to which the witnesses no doubt referred in their contribution, we are going to remain where we are. The sad thing about it is that things tend to get worse. An atrocity today becomes a worse atrocity tomorrow by way of retaliation or response. I cannot emphasise enough the necessity of intervening in a positive way by putting in place a structure for discussion.