David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a particularly urgent matter, namely, the imminent fate of a Palestinian village which I know well and to which members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade have travelled to visit, that is, Sousia in the south Hebron hills. I ask the Leader to write to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and ask him to intervene in the situation and make a statement on the matter. I will provide the Leader with the information and would be most grateful if he would make that contact.

The village has been in existence for 200 years. In 1983 an Israeli Jewish village called Sousia was established and three years later the Israelis declared the Palestinian Sousia an archaeological site and moved in to demolish it. The people reconstructed their houses but on 10 May the civil administration of Israel moved in and started taking photographs, recording GPS positions and engaging in legalistic military stuff. It is quite shocking to see the cold, unrelenting military precision of the way in which it acts. It is like the early days of the Nazis. A synagogue has been built in Sousia and the idea is to demolish the Palestinian village, wipe it off the face of the map where it has been for 200 years and join up Sousia synagogue and Sousia village.

One of the villagers said: "I am afraid of a silent demolition, that they will come and take our village apart one at a time." The whole idea is to make this area Palestinian free, another echo of the 1930s, when Judenfrei was a policy. This will involve the destruction of a series of structures that were put up with European money, including money from Ireland. There has been very considerable European Commission human aid and civil protection department funding. The Polish, German, Australian and Irish Governments have all contributed money. What is going on is utterly illegal.

Article 53 of the 1949 Geneva Convention states: "Any destruction by the occupying power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the state, or to other public authorities, or to social or co-operative organisations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations." There is no such pretence by the Israelis.

According to Article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention, forcible transfer of the protected population is prohibited and is considered a grave breech of international humanitarian law. Israel is moving and behaving in a brutalised fashion. It is breaking two of the most significant elements of the 1949 Geneva Convention. I have to go to a meeting of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, but I will give the relevant documents to the Leader.