Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also resent the criticism of the committee as a whole. This committee has always tried to be balanced in everything it has done. I had a wonderful meeting with the Israeli ambassador yesterday and listened to many of her concerns about the future of the relationship between Ireland and Israel. I reject the notion of apartheid straight off. I do not take any side in the conflict. It is deeply distressing to see some of the TV pictures coming back. The issue of the disputed territories needs to be resolved quickly.

I am a bit concerned about the direction in which the debate has moved in Ireland over recent years, especially in recent months. The story has become one-sided instead of two-sided. I do not live in a city or a village that would be likely to be attacked by rockets at any time of the day or night. I defend Israel's right to have hardware that would allow it to take rockets down as they come in. I do not for one moment defend some of the, shall we say, rather brutal approaches taken by the Israeli defence forces. I think it is a pity. I wore a uniform and I know how easy it is to probably be more brutal than you should be when you are afraid and under pressure.

Maybe I am outside the majority on this, but what can we do to change the narrative about the region - not about Israel the state but about the region? The story is becoming very one-sided. I do not accept that it is a one-sided issue. Mr. Shatter referred to 40 years experience in this country. I was on the receiving end of it myself for a period. There are no right sides in a conflict; there are just different sides. My concern is that for some reason or other in this country, one side is getting much higher-profile recognition than the other. I want you guys to tell us what we need to do to assist a peace process. Some of my colleagues might disagree with this, but we got a peace process here in Ireland in the late 1990s, sat back and clapped ourselves on the back and said "Job done, let's forget about it". Peace needs to be worked at all day, every day. We need to figure out what it is we have to do to get that peace.

I was really impressed by Mr. Haddad's presentation because I know there are Arabs who want to work in Israel, live side by side and engage on a regular basis. I know there are many hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who work and live in Israel and live their lives normally. It is very hard not to take the side of the lesser - the Palestinian group. I have criticised Israel openly and have been quite vociferous in that criticism in the past. I recall an incident in Brussels where they laid out the shoes of children who had been killed as a result of Israeli attacks on the West Bank and Gaza. I was critical of Israel at that time. Since then, I have spent a lot more time looking at the conflict. I am convinced there is no right side here. There are two sides that need to find a way to come together.

I thank the witnesses for attending. It is not easy to come in here and face people who have been extremely critical of the state the witnesses love. If the witnesses were Palestinians, I would say the same thing to them. I really want to know what we can do to build relationships. I also want to know what damage we have done with some of the things that have been said in our Parliament.