Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I exhort the Minister to ensure this issue will be on the agenda for every single Foreign Affairs Council meeting. He is aware that violent clashes erupted in September between Israeli security officials and Palestinians at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem. Unfortunately, we have since witnessed once again a new wave of violence and a number of fatalities on both sides of the conflict. The violence continues to put at further risk the viability of a two-state solution. The Minister is also aware that one of his predecessors as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr. Brian Lenihan Snr., launched that policy and that this was the first European Union country to outline the policy and commit itself to it. Will he inform the House of the efforts being made to de-escalate the violence and come to an agreement, in particular on the disputed holy sites which have become an issue in recent times, with the many other issues of conflict and the necessity to protect innocent people from further violence to themselves and their communities?

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