Mr. Alex Dunne:

To understand the context in which these demolitions are taking place, we need to look at the map on page 2 of the opening statement circulated to the committee. The map is of the West Bank and it clearly marks out areas A, B and C as created under the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s. It is worth highlighting that these were only meant to be in existence for five years, ahead of the formation of an independent Palestinian state. However, more than 20 years later, this arrangement or agreement is still in place. In areas A and B, the Palestinian Authority has limited authority over policing and civic services. These are the areas in yellow and beige on the map. The blue area of the map, constituting 60% of the West Bank, is known as Area C. In Area C, Palestinians are subject to Israeli military law and need to apply to the Israeli military for a permit to build any structure, even on privately owned land. Area C is also the part of the West Bank where the majority of Israeli settlements and outposts can be found. Israeli settlers in Area C are not subject to military law but to Israeli civil law instead. These numerous settlements, illegal under international law, can be seen in purple on the map.

According to the preliminary data collected by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UN OCHA, and the EAPPI, as of 28 December 2016, the Israeli authorities have demolished or confiscated 1,089 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank, which has displaced 1,593 Palestinians and affected the livelihoods of another 7,101. I reaffirm this has happened in 2016. These structures were demolished or confiscated because they were deemed illegal as they had been built without permits from the Israeli army or the Israeli civil administration. It is important to note that this time last year, the former UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, remarked that Israeli zoning and planning in the West Bank is "restrictive, discriminatory and incompatible with requirements under international law. The planning system favours Israeli settlement interests over the needs of the protected population and makes it practically impossible for Palestinians living in Area C ... to obtain building permits."

Official figures from the Israeli civil administration show that between 2010 and 2014, 1.5% of permits applied for by Palestinians to build anything in all of Area C were approved. Zero permits were approved in 2015. As the committee can see from the chart in the opening statement circulated to the committee, during roughly the same period, more than 30,000 settlement units were advanced by the Israeli authorities in the same area. Looking at the chart, we can see that 2016 was the year the highest number of demolitions in the occupied West Bank took place since the UN OCHA began formal records in this regard. These new figures from the UN OCHA show there has been an approximate 96% increase in demolitions by the Israeli military of Palestinian structures in 2016 against 2015's total. It is also important to note that the figures for the first week of 2017 show that the Israeli army has demolished more than 70 Palestinian structures in Area C since New Year's Day. This is 6.5% of 2016's total. If this weekly average continues throughout the year, demolitions in 2017 will be up 338% on 2016's historic total.

Under international law, Israel, as the occupying power, has the obligation to protect Palestinian civilians and administer the territory for its benefit. I will walk the committee through two parts of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Article 49 of the Geneva Convention states, "Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons ... are prohibited, regardless of their motive." Article 53 states, "Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons ... is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations."

This trend has been highlighted many times throughout 2016 at international fora. United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 of 23 December 2016 illustrates that the international community has reaffirmed its condemnation of "all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, including, inter alia, the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law and relevant resolutions".

The figures I have outlined are not descriptive of the number and value of the EU-funded humanitarian aid structures that have been demolished in the same period. According to the recently released report of the EU delegation in Jerusalem on demolitions and confiscations of EU-funded structures in area C, from January to 8 August 2016 the Israeli military has demolished or confiscated up to 115 EU-funded humanitarian aid structures. The most recent figures from the European External Action Service show that as of the end of 2016, 180 EU structures were demolished or confiscated. This represents a staggering 140% increase on the 2015 total and amounts to a material loss of €600,000, as the graph on the screen demonstrates. The summary of that report, a copy of which has been supplied to members as part of the briefing material, states:

The upsurge in demolitions in 2016 can be attributed to an overarching Israeli policy aimed at asserting control over strategic areas together with increased pressure from various Israeli settler groups on the Israeli Civil Administration. Demolitions are predicted to continue during the next six months...Of particular concern are developments related to Israeli plans for the relocation of Bedouins and herders in Area C...and the overall coercive environment in Area C that communities are facing.

In May 2016, the EU foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, told members of the European Parliament that since 2009, EU-funded structures to the value of approximately €329,000 have been demolished or confiscated by the Israeli army and that approximately 600 structures, worth almost €2.4 million, have been subject to orders for demolition, cessation of work or eviction by the Israeli army and are, therefore, under threat.

The next pages in the presentation include examples of photographs we have taken. My colleagues and I have been on a programme out there. Committee members will see a mix of EU-funded structures from different parts of the West Bank. The first photographs are from an area called Khirbet Tana, an area in the north of the West Bank. The building was a boys school funded with European money. I took the photograph in February 2016. One month later, a colleague sent me a photograph of the same school and it had been demolished. The plaque on the top of the school is shown in detail in the photograph on the next page. It is clear that the school building was an EU-funded project and that money that went to an Italian NGO to undertake the project. The next photograph shows a school for a community in east Jerusalem. Again, the destruction of EU-funded aid is clear in the following two pages. The final photograph was taken in the Jordan Valley in the past week by a colleague.

On the basis of this data and the eyewitness testimony we have provided, I will outline a set of recommended steps that the committee could take to alleviate this destruction and, in line with international law, reaffirm Ireland's commitment to a just and lasting settlement of the conflict. The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel recommends that the committee should call on the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan, to attend a meeting of the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs ahead of the next meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council. We recommend that the committee makes the recommendation that the Minister raise the need to ensure accountability for the forcible transfer of protected persons and the destruction of EU-funded humanitarian aid in the West Bank and draws attention to the creeping annexation of area C. We recommend that the committee requests to be informed on the status of the destruction of EU humanitarian aid in the West Bank as well as the progress being made at the EU Foreign Affairs Council to counter this. This should be done on a regular basis by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Dara Murphy. We recommend that the joint committee request, as a matter of urgency, a debate in the Dáil on this issue ahead of the next meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council. We recommend that the members of the joint committee travel in an official capacity to the occupied West Bank to see the destruction and confiscation of this EU-funded humanitarian aid as it is being demolished.

I thank the members of the joint committee for their time and patience with our opening statement. We welcome any questions that committee members may wish to pose.