Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I listened to the opening statement from the Taoiseach. He referred to war crimes in east Aleppo, and rightly so. It was disappointing that he did not refer to the war crimes on the other side, because they have been committed on both sides.

It is probably not his fault and it was not discussed at the last meeting, but it is striking how the EU has been so tolerant of what Israel is doing to Palestine. The purely symbolic UN Security Council Resolution 2334, passed at the end of December, is unenforceable. It was simply another parting gift from Obama to the world as he hurries to buy back his conscience following eight years of a blood-drenched US Presidency. In keeping with Obama's toothless stance on Israel, the US abstained from the vote. The 430,000 Jewish settlers currently living in the West Bank will stay there, as will the 200,000 in east Jerusalem. No one on the UN Security Council will do anything about them or the planned expansion of illegal Jewish settlements. On Sunday the Israeli Administration announced plans to build 566 new Jewish settler homes in east Jerusalem. Yesterday it announced the approval of 2,500 new settlement homes in the West Bank. It seems the increasingly ultra-racist and right-wing Israeli Administration is celebrating the departure of Obama and the arrival of Trump. This is saying something, since Obama has given more military aid to Israel than any US President before him. Furthermore, the USA was silent on the UN Security Council when the Israelis killed almost 600 children with US-made F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopters using Hellfire missiles, in Gaza in 2014.

David Friedman, the new US ambassador to Israel, finances illegal settlements in the West Bank. He has openly argued for the Israeli annexation of the West Bank. Netanyahu's Administration is being increasingly populated by people even more hawkish than himself. Robert Fisk has said, "Netanyahu will soon be the most left-wing member of his increasingly racist government". The two-state solution is obviously dead. No one in the Israeli Government wants it. Given the continuing expansion of illegal settlements, one third of Palestinians do not even believe that it is possible anymore, according to a recent poll.

Last year, the US gave the Israelis $38 billion dollars' worth of military aid. It seems the US is about to drop all pretence of condemning Israeli colonisation and apartheid against Palestinians. It seems the Israeli Administration will continue the policy of human rights violations against and absolute rule over the Palestinian people. How long before the members of Hamas are provoked to defend themselves? How long before we see another cleansing like the one in 2014? That was an act of genocide.

It was interesting to read the column by Alan Shatter in the Irish Timestoday. He called for international encouragement and confidence-building measures between parties. People have been saying the same kind of things since the Oslo agreement over 20 years ago. During that time, the West Bank settler population has grown from 109,000 to almost 400,000. At this stage, 40% of adult male Palestinians and thousands of children there have seen the insides of Israeli jails and prisons. Many remain there without charge.

Ireland must stop selling arms to Israel under the dual-use banner. Ireland and the EU should openly and harshly condemn the illegal expansion of Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands as well as the ongoing human rights abuses against Palestinians. Ireland should take part directly in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. The time for encouragement is long past: the Israeli Government is the obstacle to peace.

Why does the Government not encourage and pressurise the EU to take a human rights position in respect of how Israel is behaving towards Palestine? I cannot for the life of me understand that. This is one of the most deplorable atrocities on the planet today. It is at the source of so many problems in the region. It beggars belief that this island, which sometimes pretends to be neutral, is totally ignoring what is going on because of our US connections. It is disgraceful.

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