Mr. Emmet Sheerin:

As my colleague mentioned, I recently spent four and a half months in the West Bank. My time was divided between the South Hebron Hills, in the southernmost part of the West Bank, and the small village of Yanoun in the north of the West Bank, from where I visited the Jordan Valley on several occasions. These locations are in area C, which compromises more than 60% of the West Bank territory, meaning they are under the full control of Israel. There I witnessed at first hand the impact the Israeli settlement enterprise and related Israeli policies are having on vulnerable Palestinian communities. The challenges people face include the dispossession of land and water resources and the demolition of homes and other vital structures. Together with the rise in violence against Palestinians by extremist Israeli settlers, this situation places thousands of Palestinian men, women and children at serious risk of displacement.

The image on screen is of a woman from the village of Susiya in the South Hebron Hills. Members will notice the bruise under her eye. I took this photo in March after seven Israeli settlers had attacked the woman as she herded sheep on her family's land. The seven men approached from the nearby Israeli settlement, hit her in the face with a rock and beat her with iron bars. Not only do this woman and her entire community live with the constant threat of violence, but much of their land has been made inaccessible because of the settlement. The buffer zone that surrounds it is off-limits to Palestinians, even though it contains much of the villagers' agricultural land and water resources. In addition, almost the entire village of Susiya is at risk of imminent demolition by the Israeli authorities. In June the Israeli military issued demolition orders in respect of more than 50 structures in the village, including homes. There is also a pending demolition order against the village school. If carried out, these demolitions will directly affect more than 100 people.

The small village of Yanoun in the northern West Bank is surrounded on three sides by Israeli settlement outposts. In 2002 residents had to flee their homes following a sustained campaign of violence by Israeli settlers. They eventually returned, but only with the support of international and Israeli human rights activists. There is now a permanent international observer presence in Yanoun, in which I participated for a time. The settlers, with the support of the Israeli military, have taken over a vast amount of Yanoun's agricultural land. According to Rashed, the mayor of Yanoun, who is pictured on the screen, before the establishment of the settlements the villagers had nothing to fear. Now they live with the constant threat of violence and forced displacement.

Close to Yanoun is the Jordan Valley, where Israel's exploitation of Palestinian land and vital resources was most evident to me.

According to United Nations statistics, there are 37 Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea area. Between the settlements and the military, therefore, Israel controls a vast amount of land and a major proportion of the water resources in the area. The generous allocation of water to settlers - at the expense of local Palestinians - has enabled them to develop a major agricultural export industry. Human Rights Watch has pointed out that most of the agricultural exports from the northern part of the Jordan Valley go to Europe. At the same time, Israel is preventing the development of Palestinian communities through the systematic demolition of homes or imposing severe restrictions on freedom of movement. Furthermore, the human rights organisation B'Tselem points out some Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley consume 40% less water than the minimum daily amount recommended by the WHO. The Israeli settlements are completely illegal under international law. There is no escaping the fact, however, that the import and sale of products from the settlement supports this illegal enterprise. There is also the related dispossession and displacement of Palestinian communities. Mr. O'Brien will speak in more detail on the subject of settlement products.

The picture shown in the final slide is of a man I met in the Jordan Valley who had just received a demolition order in respect of his home. Despite being immensely frustrated about his family's situation, he still expressed some hope that the international community - in particular, European states - would respond to their needs and put pressure on Israel to cease its violations of human rights and international law. It is time that we translated strong words into real deeds in respect of this matter.