Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

One has to wonder what it will take for the invitation to be withdrawn. Issues will arise time and again and, time and again, the question of withdrawing the invitation will be posed. What will it take? The conditions of Palestinians in annexed East Jerusalem are horrific and a microcosm for the oppression of Palestinians generally within the West Bank, Gaza and the 1967 borders.

Of the approximately 300,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem, more than 140,000 are separated from Jerusalem proper by a so-called separation wall 10 m high. These are cut off from access to basic public services, have a minimal number of post offices and a minimal amount of electricity, and a small minority of people are connected to water legally. Despite East Jerusalem having 33% of Jerusalem's population, it gets less than 10% of the funding that goes into the city. There has been the expansion in settlements, with 200,000 illegal settlers in East Jerusalem since 1977, which is designed to make a Palestinian state unviable. That is the strategy of the Israeli ruling class.

The EU will not do anything about this, so the only answer is a movement of protest from below, which is precisely what the Minister says is not worth doing. Look at what was achieved in the Arab Spring. What is necessary in the Middle East is an uprising of ordinary people in Palestine and Israel and across the region to bring a solution that is in the interests of the people of that region.

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