Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

While I accept the democratic mandate of Hamas I believe there is an awful lot of ambiguity about it. I do not share the same enthusiasm to embrace Hamas as the dewy-eyed younger politician that I was, who unequivocally supported Fatah despite all that was said about it. What is Hamas? I will quote from an article in The Irish Times, not by a person from that region but by Dr. Rory Miller, who teaches on the Middle East at the University of London and is the author of "Ireland and the Palestinian Question 1948-2004". He states:

Hamas's constitution — perhaps the most outlandish and vile political manifesto currently in existence — not only promises to "obliterate" Israel but incites anti-Semitic murder, arguing that the day of judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: "O Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him."

There's more. According to its constitution, Hamas was established not merely to wipe out Jews but to pursue the far loftier goals of spreading Allah's holy message: "The Islamic resistance movement will spare no effort to implement the truth and abolish evil, in speech and in fact, both here and in any other location where it can reach out and exert influence."

For those who want to dismiss the constitution, written in 1988, as an out-of-date document that does not do justice to a more moderate Hamas, well here's the view of Hamas leader Khaled Mash'al aired on Al-Jazeera TV on 3 February: "Tomorrow, our nation will sit on the throne of the world. This is not a figment of the imagination, but a fact. Tomorrow we will lead the world, Allah willing. Our nation is moving forwards . . . when it reaches the leadership of the world . . . you will regret it."

Not something I would want to hear if I was a journalist, woman, gay, practising Christian or even Guinness drinker in any place Hamas got influence.

All this just doesn't have the same appeal as the freedom fighter slogans and anti-colonial language of Arafat and the PLO that has made generations of Irish weak at the knees — but this is what Hamas is about and we dare not forget it.

The current crisis began on 25 June, when Palestinian terrorists used a tunnel to cross from the Gaza Strip into Israel and attack an Israeli army position at the Karem Shalom border crossing. Two soldiers were killed and one, a 19 year old wounded corporal, Gilad Shalit, was dragged across the frontier into Gaza. Hamas spokespersons promptly took responsibility for the attack. On the same day an Israeli civilian from the West Bank, an 18 year old innocent called Eliyahu Asheri, was kidnapped and murdered, which has been forgotten about in the midst of the daily atrocities that have taken place in the Middle East.

The Israelis point out that they do not wish to reoccupy the Gaza Strip. They say that, for the first time in the modern period, the Gaza Strip is independent but that the Palestinians have not used that freedom to advance the well-being of their people or to establish the foundations of a functioning state. Rather, they concentrated their efforts on attacking Israel. Deadly kasam rockets continue to rain daily on Israeli territory with more than 500 missiles fired since the withdrawal. Southern Israeli towns and kibbutzes were targeted and their populations live in fear for their lives every day and night.

Recent media reports suggest that Hamas has implicitly recognised Israel, by agreeing to the so-called "prisoners' document". They refer to the concessions that Palestine has given but the reports misinterpret both the document itself and subsequent statements by Hamas leaders. Sallah Al-Bardawil, a Hamas spokesman to the Palestinian Legislative Council, stated on 27 June, "We expressed our agreement to a Palestinian state and territory occupied in 1967, the West Bank and Gaza, but we did not say we agreed to two states". Moreover, instead of representing any considerable concession to Israel, the document constitutes a large step backwards from any peaceful resolution to the conflict. The Palestinian Authority has repeatedly given its commitment to end the use of violence and terrorism. This was a fundamental element of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which began in 1990. The prisoners' document clearly violates this promise, even though its commitment has remained largely rhetorical. Hamas has announced that the prisoners' document expressly allows the organisation to continue armed resistance, including within Israel itself.

I welcome the Government's repeated commitment to maintain the level of Ireland's bilateral assistance to the Palestinians in 2006. Like all in this House I have called for a continuation of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.