Martin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

People right across the world were shocked by what they witnessed on their television screens this week. A total of 58 people were killed in one day and 2,800 were wounded, including 228 children and a man in a wheelchair, on the pretext that they were trying to invade Israel. Most of the killings were done by Israeli snipers who were located 300 m from the border.

I was part of a parliamentary delegation that visited Jordan about four years ago. We visited the camps that had developed following the Syrian conflict. The first camp which we went to is just outside Amman and it is there since 1948. Three generations of Palestinians have been born into it. We then went to the 1967 camp which is half way between Amman and the Syrian border. That was one of the most depressing places I have ever seen. People live in makeshift houses with no sanitation or running water, and they have been there since 1967. The other camp for Palestinian refugees who were run out of Syria was located on the Syrian border. There were tens of thousands of them. The world looks on and allows that to happen. Nothing has been done to alleviate the pain of generations of Palestinian people.

Another sad fact is that a third generation of Palestinian people who have been born in Jordan are stateless. They are not accepted as Jordanian citizens and one of the consequences of that is that they are not facilitated with third level education.

Approximately five or six years ago prior to the election in Israel Mr. Netanyahu decided to bomb Palestine. A total of 2,200 people were killed in Gaza by indiscriminate bombing from the air and attacks on the ground by Israeli forces. Again, the powerful nations in the world did absolutely nothing to help the Palestinian people.

Gaza is denied necessary hospital facilities coming from Egypt. Saudi Arabia is in cahoots with the Israeli Government and what it is doing at the moment. The powerful in the world order are doing absolutely nothing to try to alleviate the suffering and pain.

The Government has let down the Palestinian people consistently over the years. It let them down because it had the opportunity to recognise the state of Palestine that would give recognition and a state to people who are deserving of it. I urge the Minister of State, Deputy D’Arcy, to use his power within the Government to ensure recognition of the Palestinian state is forthcoming and also to convey to the Israeli ambassador that he is not wanted in this country.

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