Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The conditions for Palestinians under Israeli occupation are horrendous at any time but the fact that last Tuesday week Israel carried out, in the midst of a pandemic, the biggest demolition of homes of Palestinian families, 11 in number, making 80 people homeless including 41 children, is truly shocking. The pictures show the demolitions destroying water containers, farm equipment, solar panels and so forth. Much of this equipment was funded by Irish Aid and European Union money. This is happening, incidentally, in a year when the number of Palestinian home demolitions is the highest since 2016, which was the highest record year of demolitions by Israel of Palestinian homes. I remind the Taoiseach that the forcible transfer of populations in this manner is a war crime under international law.

I note that the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, condemned this but beyond words, is anybody going to do anything about this? This is EU-funded equipment in many cases being destroyed by Israel. I note that on 15 October Deputy Coveney said that Ireland and the EU states were looking to get back from Israel €625,000 which has been lost as a result of the destruction that Israel is wreaking on projects, equipment and so forth that was Irish and EU fund-aided. Have we got the money back from Israel and what are we going to do to stop the shocking ethnic cleansing and destruction of homes by Israel which is beyond words?

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