Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste is like a Kerryman. When a question is asked of him, he asks a question back. I will take the opportunity then to give a reply before posing my questions again.

The Palestinian people are an oppressed people and have a right to organise their self-defence, including armed self-defence. They have the right to fight for their own national and social liberation. The firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas is something that I do not support. It has resulted in the deaths of seven people, including a five-year-old boy. It is futile and counter-productive. I have no truck with the right-wing policies of Hamas, which oppresses the Palestinian people themselves in Gaza. A mass struggle is what is needed. There will be no peace without a mass struggle against poverty, occupation and the rule of capital. I am for an independent, socialist Palestine with its capital in east Jerusalem and for socialist change in Israel and the entire region.

In conclusion, the Tánaiste is talking about working within the framework of the European Union but does he not recognise that the European Union itself has a very significant arms trade with Israel? Is that something he is prepared to speak out against and totally oppose?

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