Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade
General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed)
2:00 am
Mr. Alan Shatter:
I would deal with it entirely differently. First, the Deputy's depiction of what is happening is inaccurate. There is currently a war taking place between what was the government in Gaza and Israel with the government of Gaza having invaded Israel and committed terrible atrocities. There is only one reason this conflict continues and it is because to this day, Hamas continues to retain hostages it abducted 646 days ago, 20 of whom are still alive and are not allowed access to the Red Cross and 30 who are apparently deceased and their remains will not be released.
If I was in government, I would do three things. First, I would call in the Iranian ambassador and demand he go back to Tehran and ask the Iranian Government to direct Hamas, which is a proxy of the Iranian Government, to end the conflict, release the hostages and do exactly what the IRA-----