Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 30 September 2015
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade
Situation in Gaza: Discussion
10:00 am
David Norris (Independent)
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Mr. Sourani and Mr. Walsh are very welcome. I wonder what we can do. This committee has passed very strong resolutions and has passed them on to the Government. During one summer, as a result of an Israeli blitzkrieg, there was an emergency recall of the Seanad and some very strong speeches, which were broadcast on YouTube and so on, were made. That seems to have had very little effect.
I was struck by two phrases used by Mr. Sourani, namely, whether the Israelis now presume themselves to be above the law and that what obtains in Gaza is the law of the jungle. What can we or Mr. Sourani do? There are human rights protocols attached to the EUROMED agreement, which is a trade agreement between the European Union and the state of Israel. They are never monitored.
I wonder, in light of Mr. Sourani's professional involvement in these human rights cases, whether the Palestinian authorities or his organisation have thought of sending a dossier to the European Union committee which supervises EUROMED, telling it about clear and acknowledged international war crimes? The Israelis have admitted that, when they said the blitzkrieg was a result of the tragic kidnapping and murder of three Israeli youths. That is obviously collective punishment.
Could Mr. Sourani give us any update on the Palestinian case against Israel before the International Criminal Court?