Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

gravely concerned at the events which took place on 31 May 2010 following the storming in international waters of the Turkish vessel the Mavi Marmara by Israeli forces which resulted in at least nine deaths and a large number of injured:

— deplores the loss of life which occurred when the Free Gaza flotilla was intercepted at sea by Israeli military forces on 31 May;

— expresses its condolences to the families of those who have been killed, and hopes for a speedy recovery by all those injured;

— condemns the use of military force in this way as unacceptable and inconsistent with the requirements of international law;

— calls for a full, independent and international inquiry into these events;

— calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all the Irish citizens detained by Israel in this operation, and for immediate consular access to those in custody;

— calls upon the Israeli authorities to allow the Irish-owned vessel the MV Rachel Corrie to continue unhindered its voyage to Gaza, and allow it to deliver its humanitarian cargo there;

— notes the Government's intention to take further diplomatic actions if such calls are ignored; and

— supports the consistent demand of the Government for an end to the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza, which has led directly to these tragic events.

I thank all the Opposition spokespersons for their co-operation and work on this agreed motion. The Government shares the widespread shock and horror at the outcome of the Israeli military storming of the Free Gaza movement flotilla yesterday, which has resulted in the death of a reported ten people and the injury of many more. I share the sense of outrage that what was intended as a humanitarian act - and was itself a response to unacceptable policies on the part of Israel - should have ended up this way.

I begin by expressing our condolences to the families of those who have been killed and our best wishes to all those who have been injured for a speedy recovery. In the early hours of yesterday morning Israeli naval vessels intercepted the Free Gaza flotilla in international waters between Cyprus and Israel and informed the six vessels in the convoy that they would not be allowed to proceed further towards Gaza, ordering them to proceed to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The exact details of what followed have yet to emerge, not least because only the Israeli account has really been heard. Following the boarding by Israeli commandos of the largest vessel, the Turkish MV Mavi Marmara, firing by the commandos resulted in ten persons on board the boat being killed and a larger number wounded. The vessels arrived in Ashdod yesterday afternoon and the injured were taken to various Israeli hospitals. I again express my condemnation of the physical force methods used by the Israeli military in dealing with this situation, which I believe cannot be justified.

The House would wish to be updated on the position of Irish citizens, which is our first concern in the immediate circumstances. The vessel owned by the Irish Free Gaza movement, the MV Rachel Corrie, which sailed from Dundalk in mid-May, and on which a number of Irish citizens embarked, had not yet reached the eastern Mediterranean and was not part of yesterday's flotilla. The Rachel Corrie is still at sea and understood to be continuing towards Gaza.

Four Irish citizens were known to be on the Challenger /, which was intercepted and taken into Ashdod. Three Irish citizens were aboard another vessel, and one further citizen, a dual national, was reported as having possibly joined the flotilla among the large Turkish contingent but this has not been confirmed and may not be correct. Of the seven confirmed Irish involved, two were taken to Ben Gurion Airport, having signed declarations agreeing to immediate deportation and are awaiting deportation today. They were visited this morning by Ambassador O'Reilly and their families have been informed.

The other five were being processed for detention prior to later deportation and were taken to a detention centre in Beersheva, as part of some 600 or more persons detained on the ships. As I came to the House, I received a report that representatives from the Irish Embassy had managed to make a consular visit to these citizens and my Department is now passing this information on to their families. I will receive a fuller report later.

There was an early report on one Israeli television channel that the injured included one Irish person, and this was later repeated by various media; some Deputies may have seen this. We do not have any information to confirm this and inquiries by the embassy to the hospitals treating the injured have been negative. We do not have any reason to believe that there is an Irish person among the injured.

On receipt of the emerging news of the tragic events of yesterday morning, I made a statement condemning what happened and I summoned the Israeli ambassador to a meeting at my Department yesterday evening. When I met the ambassador I conveyed a number of very important points to him, which he has conveyed to his Government. First, I conveyed the Irish Government's condemnation of the use of military force in this fashion against the flotilla, which was unacceptable and which had led to this tragedy.

It will be some time before we have a clearer picture of what happened but I have made the strong point to the ambassador, similarly to what I said at the time of the assault on Gaza in January 2009, that when excessive military force is used among civilians we cannot expect to control all the outcomes, and we must accept responsibility for the results of the actions. Who now could possibly argue that preventing this cargo from reaching Gaza was so important that an outcome such as this could be thought to be reasonable force?

I further made clear that all of the Irish citizens involved should be immediately and unconditionally released. At that time, I was also angry at reports that full consular access was not being allowed to our embassy, as provided for under the Vienna Convention, and I demanded such access immediately for those citizens in detention. As I reported earlier, the embassy has now seen all those we are aware of and will maintain contact until they are released.

I made clear to the ambassador my strong view that these citizens were constrained to enter Israel, which was not their intention, and that therefore questions of illegal entry should not arise. I understand that under Israeli law a person cannot be deported without a three-day period in which to appeal, and that in order to leave immediately they have to sign a waiver of this right to appeal. This may be a necessary technicality but there should be no question of having to admit guilt of illegal entry. Irish citizens were effectively seized by the Israeli forces and forcefully brought into Israel against their will.

I took issue with the description by the deputy foreign Minister of Israel of the flotilla as "an armada of hate and violence". We know the Irish activists involved to be sincere, committed people, with deep humanitarian convictions and concerns, who were committed to breaking the blockade of Gaza but in a peaceful, non-violent way. Some Members of the Oireachtas had been with them and intended to join the flotilla. It is compounding one injustice with another to try to brand such people as somehow being terrorist fellow-travellers.

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