Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Over the past few decades we have seen the crucial role played by journalists in conflict zones.

They constantly put themselves in harm's way to report the facts on the ground. They do not merely accept the narrative put out in a military or government press release but seek the truth at source to broadcast to the world. In Nicaragua and El Salvador in the 1980s, journalists helped to expose the worst crimes of government death squads. There are countless examples from Vietnam, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Ukraine where brave committed and outspoken journalists have exposed the brutality of war at great personal risk. These are journalists such as Pierre Zakrzewski, a talented war zone photographer who reported on conflicts from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine. He was brutally murdered by Russian shelling not far from the capital of Ukraine.

Two weeks ago, Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was executed by the Israeli occupation forces. Her assassination was clear and deliberate. It is getting more and more frustrating that almost weekly we hear members of various political parties expressing their condemnation of Israeli terror and land grabs. We have condemnation after condemnation but no consequences. This is a huge issue. It is a flaw in the Government's policy. There are never consequences for Israeli crimes. If the Minister were walking down Kildare Street and saw an individual being beaten to death, he would intervene and there would be consequences for the person carrying out that brutal assault. An international equivalent of this is that Israel is beating Palestine to death. It is robbing its land. It is stealing the land and the Minister knows this. He has seen it first-hand.

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