Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this opportunity to speak on the ongoing violence that is taking place in the Middle East. In the past 11 days, we have seen untold suffering being inflicted, predominantly on the people of the Gaza Strip. We need to recognise the violence that breaks out in the Middle East seems to follow a standard pattern. Sometimes rockets are fired by Hamas into Israel and inevitably we get a response from the Israeli military and Government that is always disproportionate, excessive and indiscriminate. We see this by looking at the numbers of casualties in the region over the past 11 days. To date, it appears 230 Palestinians have been killed in this violence. Of them, 65 are children. We also note that ten Israelis have died. None of these lives should have been lost. None of these people should have died. The comparison between the number of Palestinians killed and the number of Israelis killed indicates the indiscriminate and excessive level of violence being perpetrated on the Palestinians by the Israeli Government.

As I said, none of these deaths should have occurred and they could have been avoided if there was recognition that what is required in the Middle East is a political resolution. We have seen in our own country the pointlessness of violence for the purpose of trying to achieve one's political gains. It simply does not work. We have also seen in our country the benefit of negotiation and political leadership to resolve political disputes that appear intractable. Unfortunately, when it comes to political resolution a huge obligation rests on the more powerful party. In this instance, the more powerful party is Israel. Regrettably, we have not seen brave political leadership in Israel since the days of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres back in 1994. We should recall that peace can be achieved in the Middle East because these two men, along with Yasser Arafat, won the Nobel Peace Prize for their work on the Oslo Accords in 1994.

What has happened in Israel, and perhaps in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority, is that hardliners have assumed too much power.

We need to recognise that this violence will continue excessively until such time as there is a political resolution.

It is extraordinary that there is such unanimity coming from this Chamber. As Deputy Berry said earlier, this is a Chamber which usually divides on many political issues, but when it comes to what is happening in the Middle East and what has happened there over the past 11 days, this legislative assembly speaks with one voice. It could only be that we speak with one voice because of the wholly disproportionate actions of the Israeli military and government in response to what they say is a threat coming from Hamas.

People ask what can Ireland do. We have a strong voice. We are on the Security Council. We need to use our voice to ensure the United Nations and, more specifically, the United States respond more appropriately to the ongoing inappropriate use of violence by Israel. Until such time as that occurs, I do not believe Israel will regard itself as being bound by rules which bind the rest of the world.

We also need to recognise that we have a responsibility when it comes to the European Union. I listened careful to what my colleague, Deputy Haughey, said in respect of that. We should use that opportunity next week in terms of what the European Commission is doing to ensure there is a unified response from the European Union to the ongoing actions in the Middle East.

We also need to recognise that what is going on is, in effect, the plantation of settlements for the purpose of the annexation of Palestine. One message we could send out, as in the programme for Government, is to recognise the state of Palestine or, indeed, establish a permanent embassy in Ramallah.

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