John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the ambassador to the committee. It is the first time I have met him and have had the opportunity to put important questions to him. The issue in Palestine and the conflict with Israel is one of ongoing concern for everyone. Most people would like to see a peaceful outcome to the conflict based on a two-state solution. As I see it, one of the biggest impediments to that is the ongoing expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank. We know that over the summer, in the run-up to the Israeli elections, plans to further annex the West Bank by another 30% were announced.

While all that is happening, it makes a peaceful outcome very difficult to achieve. I have some questions on that.

Some of the facts are interesting, and these are from the director of the Map Association and Jewish Settlement Specialist, which was closed down by Israel. There are 252 Jewish settlements in the West Bank and ten Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem. There are 640,000 Jewish settlers in the region and 220,000 of them are in East Jerusalem. In 1988, when Palestine's independence document was proclaimed, the number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank was 66,500. There was then a major ramping up of illegal settlers in the West Bank. In 1993, when the Oslo Accords were signed, there were 116,000 settlers. When the Camp David summit took place in the US in 2000, the number of illegal settlers had increased to 184,000. By 2014, when talks were held to resolve the conflict, the number of West Bank settlers had surged to 371,000. As I said, there are now over 640,000 illegal settlers in the West Bank.

My first question relates to the recognised borders set by the UN in 1967. What is the position of Israel on those borders? It is a massive reduction of the traditional land of the Palestinians at only 22% of what was their traditional land. I seek the ambassador's perspective on that. Since 1947, there was a cleansing of Palestinian land with over 700,000 native Palestinian people forced from their land and into exile in refugee camps across the region. The Nakba, as it is called, and the right to return for those Palestinians is another issue of contention. First, it is an issue of contention as to whether the Nakba happened at all. Some Israelis refuse even to use the word. What is the position regarding the right to return for those who were forced from their lands?

I also have a question about the ongoing land, sea and air blockade of Gaza and what is seen as the collective punishment of the people of Gaza, which is illegal under international law. I wish to get the ambassador's perspective. Does he consider it just to collectively punish the people of Gaza? Does he think, like the international community, of the human impact it is having on the people in Gaza in trying to survive? Does he see it as illegal, like the vast majority of the international community?

I will turn to the section about the Iranian regime and the paragraph in which the ambassador stated that "Recently, the secretary general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, confirmed, once again, that Iran continues to enrich and store uranium ....". He went on to say that the secretary general also confirmed that Iran has failed to provide reliable answers to the IAEA concerns relating to its nuclear activities. I note that, but there is a great deal of ambiguity about Israel's nuclear activities.