Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The benefits of sport in many ways cannot be underestimated and last weekend, the tourism benefit arising from the two French teams playing in the rugby final gave much life to the city. Sport can also bring a benefit in peaceful co-existence in many ways, and I will make an example of what happened in Israel recently. Israel has an organisation that sponsors soccer between Israelis and Arabs, and the competition has been going since 1924 and particularly since 1997. The competition last week was threatened by Fatah in Palestine, as death threats were made against any Arab people who played in the soccer match. The project is sponsored by the European Union and is well supported as part of the United Neighbours project. Nevertheless, the efforts to bring people together in Israel have been damaged very severely by these death threats.

We have heard much criticism of Israel over the years but we do not hear much criticism in this House about Palestine. In this case, it is not Hamas but Fatah - the more moderate group in Palestine - that issued death threats. It would be worthwhile to draw the attention of the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to the matter. We have the EU Presidency and we can make it clear that there are times when we do not approve of such occurrences.