Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

New realities are further illegal settlements. By accepting this language and these terms from Israel, the EU is undermining international humanitarian and human rights law. For the life of me, therefore, I cannot see how the EU is being of any assistance at all by accepting an alternative that has at its centre further illegal settlements in breach of international law and in flagrant breach of human rights law.

We all hope that Hamas, in turn, will take a political rather than a military direction. I agree entirely that it is urgent for it to do so. The flaw in what is happening, however, is that we in Europe will be presented with a reality in which the land will already have been spoken for. There is now no final stage in the Quartet talks. The land is already occupied.

See this speech in context