Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Regarding Palestine, Palestine is regularly raised at European Council meetings, most recently around the status of Jerusalem, where the European Union was united in our view that the embassy should not be moved to Jerusalem until the final status of that city is decided.

Deputy Boyd Barrett has raised the Kimberley process before. I have written to him about this. I am not sure if he has received that letter yet but it explains why it does not apply to Israel and why what he proposed cannot be done, in the view of the people who know all about the Kimberley process.

Palestine was also discussed last week in Helsinki at the European People's Party, EPP, congress. There was a discussion around the Human Rights Watch report on human rights in Palestine, Two Authorities, One Way, Zero Dissent, which is worth becoming familiar with. It refers to the extent to which Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza face oppression by both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. It is important that when we talk about the conflict in Israel and Palestine, we do not turn a blind eye to the human rights abuses being committed by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Sometimes it seems that if a Palestinian is a victim of human rights abuses by Israel, it is raised. However, when a Palestinian is a victim of human rights abuses by Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, there is silence. I hope that the Deputy does not have a higher level of tolerance for human rights abuses committed by Hamas or other Palestinian groups than those committed by the state of Israel.

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