Dr. Bernard Sabella:

I will be brief because I realise that we have taken very good time. I agree with Deputy Mitchell that the Palestine question has been used by terror groups. We Palestinians currently have nothing to do with that. Therefore, I think we need to work together. I commend the committee on inviting me here today. This is one of the things the committee needs to continue doing. Furthermore, we would like to see committee members come to Palestine to meet our people. Some of the members have already done that. It is a good strategy because it sends a message to the Israelis that we are not alone.

We have a lot to do internally. We need to rework the unity. We need to go forward to unity government at least at the beginning. Such a government would prepare elections and prepare to go back to one entity. Palestine is one entity. It is not Gaza and Ramallah. We have considerable responsibility there.

I agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett that the situation has become worse. While he and others might argue that we have to call Israel by name, others would argue the opposite and suggest being soft on Israel because when one is soft on Israel, it is willing to consider improving the living conditions of Palestinians. That is not the whole issue. The issue is that the living conditions are improved for ten years but there continues to be control, oppression and occupation, and young people continue to have frustration and disappointment. What should we do? We have thousands of young people who are out of work. They have no future. What should we do? The Palestinians need to be allowed to have their own state and work out their own problems. I am not saying we do not have problems or that we are perfect. We have problems. If we are not allowed to work out our own problems and to develop our own economy, which Israel is not permitting, we will continue to have problems.

I welcome the recent suggestion of the Israeli politician Mr. Peretz - not Mr. Peres - that first need to move on a political solution with the Palestinians. In order to prove his point he said that if the Palestinians in east Jerusalem had voted for a mayor of Jerusalem the mayor of Jerusalem today would have been a Palestinian. This means that if the 300,000 Palestinians in east Jerusalem had participated in municipal elections - I think approximately 120,000 of them are allowed to vote by age - then we would have a Palestinian mayor of Jerusalem because he expected us to vote en bloctogether. He argued that the Israelis also need to dismantle some settlements. He suggested that at least 80,000 settlers should be returned to Israel and that their small settlements be dismantled in order to allow for a political solution with Palestinians.

I have brought him into the picture to show that some Israeli politicians are aware of the same things that have been discussed by the distinguished members of this committee today. We need Palestinians and Europeans to encourage mainstream Israeli voices who call for practical solutions, not for ideological solutions. From the Israeli point of view, an ideological solution would mean the annexation by Israel of the West Bank.

I will conclude by bringing to the committee's attention an experience I had with a group of master's degree students in Jerusalem. All of the students in question are Palestinian and most of them are Muslim. Seven of them are Muslim and one is a Christian. They were working with me on understanding relations among religions in Jerusalem. When we discussed the relationship of Judaism to Jerusalem, they told me they were not convinced by some of the material they had read. They said they wanted to arrive at an impression of what the relationship of Judaism to Jerusalem really was; therefore, they invited a Jewish rabbi to come to speak to them. They told me they should also have invited a Christian priest to speak to them about Christianity. The Christian student said they should have invited a Muslim sheikh to come to speak to them. I am not talking about politicians because I know politicians engage in sweet-talking. I am talking about real young Palestinian people: students, young people who do not go to school and young people who are working. They are interested in arriving at a point where we will have true peace in the Holy Land between Israelis and Palestinians. I think Ireland, its Parliament and people have a role in contributing to this. I ask the Irish people to keep us in their minds. I wish them all a merry Christmas and a happy new year.