David Norris (Independent)

-----to a committee of the Oireachtas that in such circumstances there had been no prosecutions and that there would be no prosecutions. That is the reason I call it the Romeo and Juliet syndrome. The matter must be investigated because this issue was discussed in the House and I warned this might happen.

I wish to raise the sentencing yesterday in an Israeli court of Ezra Nawi, an Israeli citizen with whom I had a long relationship and whom I still value. He was sentenced in a manner that was very close to the Denning judgment. He was engaged in a non-violent protest against the illegal demolition of the hovels of some Palestinian subsistence farmers. The film evidence, the only evidence available, shows clearly that this was the case. Previously, there had been attempts by the Israeli Government to have him sentenced on the basis of perjured evidence of soldiers and police, but these were thrown out by a succession of judges. It has now got its way. We should have a debate on the situation in the Middle East. What is really worrying is that Israel, which calls itself a democracy and is always labelled the only democracy in the Middle East, has included conditions in the sentence.