Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Deputy Dooley's remarks. Apart from us, the delegation included two parliamentarians from Britain - a Scottish Labour MEP and a Liberal Democrat Member of the House of Lords - as well as a Belgian senator and a Lithuanian Liberal Democratic MEP, the son of a Holocaust survivor.

I wish to focus on the second day of our trip when we visited the Bedouin community south of Beersheba in the Negev Desert. Even though its members are citizens, they are only second class citizens. Despite the fact that many Bedouins serve in the Israeli army, we encountered the imposition of awful conditions. For example, villages appeared to be unrecognised by their local authorities, meaning that they were not connected to electricity supplies and other public utilities and needed to provide their own energy via solar panels outside their tents or shacks. There was evidence of Bedouin villages being repeatedly knocked down. We were told of one example of a village being knocked down more than 20 times. We were presented with evidence of Israeli authorities restricting Bedouins to living in certain limited parts of the Negev Desert.

There were serious allegations that Bedouin olive groves were being destroyed and replaced by eucalyptus trees. This was presented by the Israeli authorities as a way of preventing desertification but in reality it removes the Bedouins' olive groves and grazing land.

As Deputy Dooley noted, this is a small aspect of the whole problem that exists between the Israelis and the Arab population, but the Israeli authorities should be reminded that they need to address it. There are potentially very serious consequences for the region. I ask the Minister of State to make representations to the Israeli Government to ensure its citizens are treated equally, even those of an Arab or Palestinian background.

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