Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

With every passing day, Israel is tightening its illegal stranglehold on this piece of Syrian land. Our concern is that Irish troops are being used as pawns in yet another Israeli land-grabbing exercise. The Minister is aware that a huge oilfield was discovered in the Golan Heights in recent years. In 2013, the Israeli Government gave a concession to exploit this oilfield to Genie Oil and Gas.

It had no right to do that in other people's lands. Not only did it give it to that company, which is run by a retired Israeli general who said famously that Palestinians were creatures who came out of the depths of darkness and that all of them should be killed, at that time Israel also began building fortifications which sealed off the illegally occupied Golan Heights from Syria, increasing the border by 45 km. We know also of Israel giving material aid to ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front in the Golan Heights. That is incredibly serious for our troops and in terms of furthering illegal activity in the region, and we should not have any part of it.

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