Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

Will the Leader find a slot for a debate on the Middle East before the end of the session? Yesterday Israelis boarded a boat carrying pro-Palestinian supporters, including Mairead Maguire, the Irish Nobel Prize winner for her work in Northern Ireland, David Graham, an Irish electrician, and Cynthia McKinney, a former US Congresswoman - this is public knowledge - and they are now being brought into an Israeli port. They were bringing humanitarian aid to the 1.5 million people trapped in despair in Gaza.

This story was removed from the headlines because of the sudden and tragic death of Michael Jackson, which has taken over all the airwaves from CNN to Sky Television. Nobody is interested in what is happening in Gaza at the moment and we should send a protest through the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Micheál Martin. I intend to raise this and other matters in respect of the Middle East later today with the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, David Miliband, who is to visit Leinster House. I commend the joint committees on European affairs and foreign affairs, which propose to visit the region in Gaza. However bad things are here, they are a lot worse in Gaza and people are not giving this the consideration it deserves. Gaza is an open prison, maintained by the Israeli Government against the wishes of the Palestinian people. It is about time people shouted "Stop". I shall make the case today to the Minister, Deputy Martin, who is extremely good on the entire issue. Ireland has a great record as far as Palestine is concerned. We were the first country, and the late Brian Lenihan was the first Minister in Europe, to recognise the two-state solution.