Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

------the inability to rebuild Gaza because of the unacceptable blockade. That is what is at issue here. France's Foreign Minister, Mr. Bernard Kouchner, has been refused entry and he is still trying to pursue it.

We are not doing this to be provocative. We are doing it, in essence, to draw attention to the plight of Gaza as well as to see at first hand what is happening on the ground there. The second overarching point is that the longer moderate opinion is isolated, the more difficult any resolution of the broader question becomes, in terms of the Middle East Peace Process.

I am mindful of the number of young students who had visited Gaza during the conflict and who are not allowed to return to college, and of the harassment of young Palestinians who want to pursue third level education. I had to write recently, at the instigation of Members of the House, on behalf of a young lady from Bethlehem, who could not pursue her third level education. It is appalling and I do not see the logic of it, either strategically or in any shape or form.

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