Dr. Bernard Sabella:

Life is a mixture of fear, anticipation and going about as normally as one can. People on both sides must continue living, taking buses and travelling about. We must say it as it is. Young Palestinians and many Israelis are afraid because of the cycle of violence and confrontation, which is a result of a political impasse. We do not know where we are going. We try to mix, for example, and there is a major debate in Palestine about whether we should celebrate Christmas and light Christmas trees in all Palestinian towns, as we usually do. This may surprise many Irish Members of Parliament. Muslims and Christians celebrate Christmas together and participate in activities around Christmas time, which is beautiful.

Now, because of what is happening and because people have been killed and hundreds, if not thousands, have been injured, there is sadness and mourning, and we must consider whether we should light up the Christmas trees. Many voices are saying we should light up the Christmas trees and not allow the crisis to hold us back. Christmas is an occasion for joy not for adults, but for children, and we do not want to take the joy from Palestinian children, Muslim and Christian alike. It is not easy. It is difficult. There is a feeling among young people in Palestine that they are targeted, and this makes them afraid.

A question was asked about the PLC and prisoners. Recently, our colleague Khalida Jarrar was sentenced to 15 months in prison. The accusations against her are political. She has not committed any violent act, but is being punished for her position on Israel and her expressed views against the occupation. We find it utterly unacceptable that a Palestinian member of parliament is targeted. There is a practice in Israel of administrative detention, which, unfortunately, we inherited from the time of the British Mandate for Palestine. Anybody who is not to the liking of some Israeli authorities finds his or her way to prison under administrative detention, which is very unfortunate.

On the question regarding the Christian community, our experience in Palestine is that it has been a model of co-existence between Christians and Muslims. What the Christian community is concerned about is that we have seen a shift from a national identity to a religious identity, not only in Palestine but across the Middle East. That is a little bit problematic because for some, among both Muslims and Christians, this religious identity seems to say that we are two separate communities. We are not two separate communities and the overwhelming majority of Palestinians, Muslims and Christians alike, subscribe to the view that we are one community. We have an important saying in Arabic which emerged from Egypt, and its meaning in English is "Religion is for God, but the homeland is for everybody." We subscribe to this view.

What is happening in Iraq and Syria with Islamic State is problematic, and politicians and policy makers in Palestine do not hide this. We are worried about it because it drives fear among people. What this extremist, terrorist group is doing to Yazidi, Christian and other communities in Iraq and Syria is reflected in our fears. I must stress, however, that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians subscribe to the view that our state is for all citizens, is open and does not discriminate. We in Palestine are proud that our Government has Christian Ministers. I do not like to use the term "Christian Ministers," and do so only to make my point. We also have Christian ambassadors. A recent study on Christians in Palestine, which was carried out by a Lutheran church in Bethlehem that is Palestinian rather than imported, pointed out that 45% of all non-governmental organisations in Palestine working in human rights, social media and so forth had been founded or are directed by Palestinian Christians. We are fully integrated in our society and we do not have any problem. However, Muslims and Christians must together face the fears caused by Islamic State, a terrorist organisation.