Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I visited in the past few weeks, for the second time this year, the area to which the questions nominated by me refer. I was referring specifically to the recently recognised town of Ma'ala Adumim, which was founded in 1975 and which has a population of 25,000.

The conclusions of the meeting on 3 October to which the Minister referred make no reference to the illegality of the expansion of settlement in the general area of east Jerusalem. The issue is that 8,000 settlers were removed from Gaza and from four settlements in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. Some 35,000 housing permissions were given between September 2004 and September 2005 across 19 different occupied areas in the general area of east Jerusalem, the net effect of which is to cut off Bethlehem from Ramallah.

I put it to the Minister that it endangers three fundamentals, namely, the final status of talks relating to Israel and Palestine, the viability of the Palestinian state and the future of east Jerusalem. The settlement policy of the Israeli authorities should be the central element of a European Union statement in which the illegality of the expansion of that settlement policy should be mentioned. I was in Ramallah just after the anniversary of the International Court of Justice ruling on the war. People asked what Europe is doing about the vindication of the decision of the International Court of Justice, which is just over a year old.

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