Mr. Alan Shatter:

I thank the Chairman for introducing me. Having been a founder member of this committee and having sat in many such meetings, it is a little surreal to be making a submission to it. I would like to explain my capacity in making that submission. I was a founding member of the Oireachtas Ireland-Israel parliamentary friendship group, as Ms Goodall mentioned. I am a member and supporter of the Ireland Israel Alliance. I am also chairperson of Magen David Adom Ireland, which is a support group for the Israeli ambulance and emergency services and a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross. It is one of the most integrated organisations in Israel, with 22,000 members across all communities, Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze. It provides emergency healthcare and assistance across the whole span of Israeli society and is currently on the front line in providing medical help and assistance in the context of the current conflict.

I am involved in the Ireland Israel Alliance because I believe there is a need to further deepen good relationships between Ireland and Israel. I believe Ireland, from its own perspective, has a unique contribution it could make to reigniting what is a moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Sadly, to date, not only does Ireland not make that contribution but, in stances on occasion taken, it places itself in a position where it lacks credibility to engage in a constructive manner in the peace process. I have for many years been an advocate and supporter of a two-state solution. I have met with many of the Israeli political leaders and many of the Palestinian leaders, including President Abbas on a number of occasions and the late Saeb Erekat, who was one of the principal negotiators. Tragically, the successful agreed implementation of a two-state solution remains a distant dream and we now find ourselves with yet another tragically unnecessary conflict, with lives being unnecessarily lost and further division created.

I followed Tuesday's meeting of this committee with great interest. I noted that, understandably in the current unfortunate circumstances, it went beyond the original subject matter of the meeting, as the Chairman mentioned. I am going to touch on a couple of aspects of that. I also have to say that I found the meeting particularly depressing as an observer because no hard questions were asked in response to presentations made. No matter what side they are on, and I do not believe members of the foreign affairs committee should be on any side other than Ireland's side, it behoves members to ask the hard questions and tease out propositions that are presented before it. No mention was made of UN Resolution 181, which envisaged in 1947 the creation of both a Jewish and an Arab state. It also envisaged something that seems to have been forgotten, namely, Jewish and Arab minorities peacefully living in each state. It never envisaged the Jewish people living in an Arab state and being pejoratively labelled as settlers or that the Arab state to emerge from the 1947 resolution would be judenfrei, that is, free of all Jews and with no Jews permitted to reside in it. Of course, that resolution referred to a Jewish state and an Arab state and made no reference at the time to what we all now perceive to be, and hope some time in the future will be, a Palestinian state.

No mention was made at the committee meeting of Resolution 181 or its importance as a bedrock resolution to where we are today. No mention was made of the divisions between Fatah and Hamas and that, for 14 years, Gaza and the West Bank have been ruled by two entirely separate political entities, often in violent confrontation with each other. No mention was made that Hamas remains committed to Israel's total destruction, an objective supported by Iran. There was no mention that President Abbas and members of the Palestinian Authority regularly and ludicrously claim the Jewish people have no historical connection to Jerusalem, to today's Israel and to parts of the Palestinian-administered territory. There was no questioning of the contention that no Jewish person should reside in the West Bank, or what is known to many Jewish people as Judea and Samaria. There is something vaguely ludicrous about wrongly accusing Israel of being an apartheid state while advocating that there should be no Jewish community located on any part of what might in the future be Palestinian territory or in any part of what is currently referenced internationally as either the West Bank or Judea and Samaria.

There was no questioning of Iran's role in fomenting division and in regard to the current conflict. There was no mention of the shooting of three 19-year-old Israeli students, one of whom has since died, at a bus stop. That happened ten days ago, before the current rocket firing commenced. There was no mention of Hamas celebrating that event. There was no mention of a Palestinian education system, partially paid for by Irish taxpayers, that brainwashes young children to hate, celebrates atrocities and encourages martyrdom. That system is creating generations who will oppose any reasonable peace resolution that may at some time in the future emerge. The manner in which schoolchildren have been taught is creating a series of inflexible generations who will never engage in any support for a compromise solution. There was no mention of the Palestinian Authority's pay for slay programme, a very basic issue on which I would have thought the Palestinian ambassador would be questioned.

There was no mention of paid Hamas operatives regularly rioting at the Gaza border with Israel. There was no mention of the projectiles regularly fired from Gaza into Israel, putting lives at risk and causing fires and major environmental damage to forests originally planted on barren land. No mention was made of the intensifying of the firing of such projectiles on Wednesday of last week as a preliminary to the Hamas rockets that are currently hitting Israel.