Mr. Alex Dunne:

A high profile member of staff of the World Council of Churches was deported a number of months ago from the airport for supporting boycott, divestment and sanctions, BDF. EAPPI, as a programme, does not have a view on that and has not made a statement on whether it is for or against it. What was remarkable about it was that it was the first time someone had been deported directly from Tel Aviv explicitly as a result of BDFs, which is a worrying trend because we do not have a stance on it. To be deported for an ideology is worrying and challenging.

Some of the current legal steps that are going through the Israeli Knesset at the moment are seeking to advance Bills that could do the very same thing for Jewish people, Israelis and anyone around the world, that is, denying them entry into the country because of their report for BDS because that is essentially against Government policy.

Members raised a few other points. How do we explain the current spike in demolitions and why now? Since 2002 when the programme was established, what we as observers witnessed on the ground has been a successful Israeli Government policy of de facto annexation of huge parts of the West Bank and Area C, but we have not heard it as loudly and as clearly from different Israeli Governments as we hear it now. We are now at a point where what we see on the ground is in tandem with the political discourse taking place within this coalition Government. In practice and as outlined in the EU delegation's biannual report, of which the committee has a copy, discourse within the Israeli coalition at the moment has contributed to the creation of a coercive environment in the West Bank that aims to forcibly displace Palestinians from areas intended for settlement expansion. Perhaps most alarming is that the rate of these demolitions and displacement practices has grown at a time when international opinion has been clearly stated in the Middle East Quartet report and the latest United Nations Security Council resolution and at the Paris peace conference that was held last Sunday and which our Minister attended. In the background to all that, these demolitions have been increasing and that is worrying.

A structured dialogue between the European Union and Israel that was initiated in 2015 to look at this issue of demolitions is taking place. In December 2014, the EU and its member states committed to taking certain concrete actions on the demolition of EU-funded structures if the situation on the ground continued to deteriorate. This action included asking for compensation and calling for all demolished EU-funded structures to be listed publicly. Further, in May 2016, the EU called on Israel for an immediate moratorium on the adverse developments in Area C. According to press reports, the European ambassador has warned Israel that the continued demolitions were liable to harm EU-Israel relations. So far, a group of member states are very supportive of the move forward with compensation claims but no concrete action on the issue has been made or taken by the Commission or the European External Action Service yet.

Members asked what can be done now, how the UN fits into this and how we can advance other international diplomatic efforts.First, we welcome the international efforts and the latest UN Security Council resolution of December. We welcome the statements of Secretary of State John Kerry on Middle East peace. We welcome the joint declaration in Paris on Sunday. However, all of these international documents and fora are non-binding. In reality they are recommendations. We would like to see progress being made at European level and member state level on implementing some of these calls. To further that aim, Ireland alone or with like-minded European states could call on the European Commission to audit the full scope of European-Israeli relations.

On the level of implementation of a differentiation of commitments and reporting back to the council, let us have a look at where the relationship between the EU and Israel stands at the moment and the agreements that are in place. There was a freeze since 2009 on this going any further, but perhaps we can call on the Commission to examine it and see what parts need to be examined now in light of the deteriorating situation on the ground which, as we can see from the opening statement, the detail from the European Union, the United Nations and pretty much every international body in the world, is going in the wrong direction and away from a two-state solution.

Why the spike and what steps could be taken? It is important to note that we fund these projects. We pay for the buildings that are destroyed. We pay for them in a centralised pot. The EU's operational budget for last year was approximately €141 billion. We contribute approximately €1.6 billion to it. Of the total pot, approximately €2 billion is used on humanitarian aid globally. A fraction of our contribution - €23 million - goes into that pot. We can look at the demolition of these structures and ask if any Irish structure has been demolished outside the direct funding of two projects in the West Bank by Irish Aid. Not one structure funded by Irish Aid has been demolished. However, we can take the view that every single EU funded structure that is confiscated or demolished is ours. Our taxpayers' money is going into it. Ireland, with its significant historical background and experience of peace and conflict mediation, has a strong and powerful voice at a European level to push for claims for compensation for these assets and to draw a line in the sand and show that it is unacceptable for the structures to be demolished.

The reason the humanitarian assistance is in place is that Israel is not living up to its obligations under international law. Under the fourth Geneva convention, Israel is supposed to provide for security, housing and access to education and water for the population in those areas it occupies. When Israel in Area C does not live up to this obligation, the international community steps in. In this situation, the European Union steps in and puts these assets on the ground. That these assets are confiscated before they get to the ground or demolished when they get there is quite staggering.

To add one final point, I will quote from the minutes of a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee which took place in the middle of last year. I will send these minutes to the committee. In speaking on the destruction of European aid and the establishment of firing zones in Area C, it should be known that Colonel Einav Shalev, who was the operations officer of the central command of the Israeli army, is on record as admitting that the establishment of firing zones in this same area in the West Bank is used to expel Palestinian communities. In addressing a sub-committee of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that was discussing illegal Palestinian construction in Area C, he told it that military training in live fire zones in the West Bank is used as a way of reducing the number of Palestinians living nearby and was one of the main reasons the Israeli army has increased its training in the Jordan valley. He stated that, "in places where we [the Israeli army] significantly reduced the amount of training, weeds have grown". He then spoke about the confiscation of international humanitarian aid before it reached its destination and stated that it serves as:

a [blow] in the right places. When you confiscate 10 large, white and expensive tents, it’s not easy. It’s not simple to recover.

I can send on those minutes to the committee. For us, that these structures are being demolished to make way for the settlement enterprise in the West Bank, which is what we have been witnessing since 2002, shows a clear determination of policy.