Results 1-20 of 620 for israel speaker:Micheál Martin

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Defence Forces (16 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) with 328 personnel. Ireland also contributes personnel to two other UN missions located in the Middle East, the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO) Israel & Syria with 11 personnel, and the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in Syria, with 5 personnel. Observers and staff are also deployed to various United Nations...

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Defence Forces (15 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...as appropriate, as they have had to do on several occasions since the outbreak of hostilities. With regard to UNIFIL particularly (which as the Deputy is aware is the Mission monitoring the Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel), the Government recently approved the additional deployment of an extra platoon of 33 Irish troops to serve as an additional force protection element with the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...want to say to the people of Georgia that we are listening to them and we hear their demands. We support them. We support a future for them that is characterised by democracy, freedom and dignity. I also want to address the situation in Israel and Palestine. I have had regular exchanges with many members on the situation in the Dáil, and I want to pay tribute to all the members...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...shocking in terms of the destruction of schools, houses, universities and hospitals so the very essence of any society to live in any humane way. All those essentials have been destroyed by Israel and its continued bombardment. Many of the UN agencies went to Rafah in anticipation that the city would be a safe zone from which to conduct their operations in terms of humanitarian aid to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: I would have to come back to the Deputy on the estimates in Israel. There are four or five citizens and about 30 dependants in Gaza at the moment. We have taken out about 100 between citizens and dependants. While I said we did take out the full 100, there has been a new channel opened up in terms of a private channel. However, we did facilitate those who came out of that channel with...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...Qatar have been working on an Arab peace initiative framework that would endeavour to be as comprehensive as possible, embracing Palestinian self-determination, a ceasefire in Gaza, guarantees to Israel's security, normalisation in terms of the Israeli-Saudi relationship and so on. Our officials were also working with Jordanian and Egyptian officials around the question of making sure...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: It is difficult and challenging. Israel does not appreciate or like the Irish position, to put it mildly. We have always been consistent in saying we are not anti-Israel or the Israeli people. However, we make our judgments and observations and take positions on this situation through the prism of international humanitarian law, the UN charter, and the need for a two-state solution and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...of accountability. Among EU member states, Ireland has been one of the most proactive at the ICJ and the ICC so far in the context of Palestine. Accountability matters. We know that because Israel takes the court seriously in terms of its response. That is not in the media, however. The feeling of helplessness to which the Senator referred is something I pick up regularly as I travel...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...was signed off. To be fair to the embassy, generally we are in touch with it on multiple occasions daily. There has been a great deal of interaction between the embassy and the Government of Israel in respect of our stance on this issue. There is no ambiguity or misunderstanding about our position in regard to the Government of Israel, so much so that it has sought explanations and so...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...for Transport is leading on this. To put the debate in context, we have no evidence at all that there are any flights. I am not aware we are complicit in anything in terms of overflights to Israel.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...-equipped and is not investing enough in its own defence. As a result of the Holocaust, whether we agree or disagree, it is the reality of German politics that they see a unique relationship with Israel and the protection of Israel. They say this repeatedly. I do not agree with them entirely. Obviously, the position of Germany----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: Yes. They have made their position in respect of Israel clear, because of what happened historically. I think there is a failure there to look at it in contemporary times in terms of Israel's destruction of Gaza and killing of Palestinians. I fail to understand the German position in respect of that. Germany is still the biggest contribution of humanitarian aid to Gaza and to...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Middle East (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...would refer to occupied Palestinian territory based on 1967 borders, which includes Gaza and the West Bank, as the State of Palestine, while being mindful that a future settlement between Palestine and Israel may involve mutually agreed adjustments to the 1967 lines. Ireland recognises states, not governments. Recognition of a state does not, therefore, necessarily reflect...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Middle East (14 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: I am appalled by the increasingly dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Israel must take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance in Gaza. I have repeatedly stressed this point at regular meetings of the European Union Foreign Affairs Council. I also called for continued support from the European...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: We have taken action. The Deputy is being very disingenuous. We have taken action long before this war and during it. We were one of the first to support the NGOs that Israel had, in our view, wrongly labelled as supporters of terrorism. We continued our support for those NGOs, which are human rights organisations, with finance. We met them. I already instanced the UNRWA situation and...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...in the International Court of Justice on the case initiated by South Africa, but that will take time. I am not saying that is all we will do but it does speak to the issue of accountability. Israel has to be held accountable through the international court system for what it has done. We have to advocate with other countries to win them over to our position. We have been effective,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...any operation there would be catastrophic. When I visited Rafah, we saw a CT scanner which had been donated being denied access. A lot of other hospital equipment is being denied access by the Israeli authorities allegedly on the grounds of dual use. A green sleeping bag was denied access because it could be used as camouflage. A children's education pack was denied because it...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Middle East (9 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: -----because of his particular view. I believe Israel has no strategic approach to the Middle East and has failed abysmally in developing a strategic approach. I believe earlier generations of leaders had a better approach to the idea of a two-state solution and getting there but it is a far more complex situation than the Deputy is articulating here today, to be fair.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Middle East (9 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ...and entities under the EU global human rights sanctions regime where there is evidence of consistent violations of human rights. In respect of the case initiated by South Africa against Israel under the genocide convention at the International Court of Justice, I welcome in particular the order for additional provisional measures made by the court on 28 March requiring Israel to ensure...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Middle East (9 May 2024)

Micheál Martin: ..., said it was not really that significant and asked whether we could move on now. His asserted solution fails to understand the complexity of the situation, for example, the Arab population within Israel itself.