Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I join other Deputies in condemning the massively disproportionate levels of force used against protesters in Gaza in the past 48 hours. The latest death toll is approximately 60, with over 750 wounded by live gunfire. It is outrageous that people armed only with slingshots and rocks can be indiscriminately mown down with ammunition, while, 40 miles away, representatives of the United States and several EU members states gathered for a celebration to open the new American embassy in Jerusalem. However, the contrast is symptomatic of the larger issue. Israel is only able to continue to dominate Palestine with either the tacit or overt support of the international community and the United States, in particular. This must end. There is very little else that can be said about the Israel-Palestine issue that we have not heard before now. This period marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. The Palestinians refer to it as Yawm an-Nakba, the day of the catastrophe, commemorating the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland in an act of modern day colonialism. The different interpretations of the events lay bare the shortcomings of the current state of discourse on the Israel-Palestine issue. It is a zero sum game of absolutes where the focus is often on undermining arguments and sloganeering. It simply is not enough to castigate the actions of the state of Israel and the Israeli Defence Forces, IDF, with regard to their appalling actions against protesters in Gaza or supporting illegal settlements on the West Bank, with a myriad of other issues which could be added to the list.

Echo chamber speeches ring particularly hollow when we are preaching to the converted. What we need is action from the Government at an EU and bilateral level to press Israel back to the negotiating table with the Palestinians. If we have learned anything from the peace process in Northern Ireland, it is that compromise is the only workable long-term solution where two groups lay claim to a small territory. Israeli domination of Palestine may work for now, but it is simply not a viable or just long-term solution.

What is particularly frustrating when speaking on this topic is the fact that we already know what the contours of the resolution will look like. The only long-term viable solution is the two-state solution, based on the 1967 borders. The status quomeans that the onus to act to restart the peace process lies in the hands of the Israelis. Given the current domestic and international political reality, this is unlikely to happen any time soon.

The positioning of the so-called hawks in Netanyahu’s Likud party and other smaller nationalist and right-wing parties in the Knesset, as well as the US embassy move, perhaps signal that the once extraordinary is now very much ordinary in the region. The current Israeli Administration is simply kicking the can down the road and leaving future generations of Israelis and Palestinians to deal with the consequences of the Likud-led government's unwillingness to talk for fear of looking weak for domestic reasons. The international community knows what the solution is. We know where the pressure must be applied. I commend the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade for summoning the Israeli ambassador and calling for an international independent investigation. However, given that leadership and that pressure on the issue is unlikely to come from the United States until at least 2020, will the Minister redouble his commitment to raising the issue at a European level? We can only hope co-ordinated pressure from sympathetic EU member states can play a role in bringing both sides back to the negotiating table where a workable implementation plan leading to the already known solution can be agreed to. I urge the Minister to redouble his efforts in that regard.

See this speech in context