Anthony Lawlor (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Since 1946 when the Israeli State was brought into existence nothing has happened with regard to the Palestinian people. The only thing that has happened is that they have been forcibly removed from their houses. Even today, as we speak, Palestinian people are being moved off lands in the West Bank so that Israeli settlers can take the land. People do not seem to understand that there are consequences to this. If Israeli property is located in the West Bank, no Palestinian can walk close to it. If I was a Palestinian and wanted to go from this side of the Chamber to the other side and if there was a Jewish, or Israeli, building in the middle, I would have to walk down to Merrion Square, cross over Merrion Square and come back up the other side to get into the far side of this Chamber. People do not understand the type of harassment going on in the West Bank. I saw it myself in Hebron where school children had to walk an extra mile to get to their homes or they would have walked in front of Israeli property. These are the simple things that people must deal with day-to-day.

People do not understand that fishermen in Gaza can only go out 3 km from the coast to fish. They cannot go any further. Farmers are restricted to growing their crops 500 m from the fence line. These are the types of restrictions that are going on.

If anyone here knows their history, the situation would remind them of the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War.That was a situation where an extreme right wing super power controlled a minority people. That is exactly what is going on in Gaza and the West Bank. Jerusalem was chosen as the capital of Israel 3,000 years ago. The Israelis could wait that long and their objective now is quite simple: a border from the Jordan Valley to the sea, from the Sinai Desert to the mountains north of Ramallah. They can wait.

I have heard calls for investigations. There have been calls for investigations after every incident within the West Bank or Gaza and nothing has happened. It is too late to call for investigations. When I was in Jerusalem I walked through the Damascus Gate with Muslims, Christians and Jews. Inside the gate there are many Muslim coffee shops and lots of Israeli Jews were having coffee there. It is possible for the people to coexist if there is a willingness to do so.

Most Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley use the water from that site to produce peppers and aubergines. When we go to buy a red pepper we should check where it comes from and if it comes from Israel we should not purchase it. We should purchase something that may come from Spain or even our own farmers, over anything else. These are the small things that started when the Dunnes Stores staff worked to remove South African produce from the stores. That is something simple that we can do.

Removing the Israeli ambassador removes a source of communication. Then our ambassador will be removed. What will be achieved? We need to open communications. The sad point is that the only thing that will hurt Israel is money not public opinion. If we can hurt it financially let us do so. I will not be purchasing produce from the settler community in the West Bank.

The soprano Celine Byrne did not participate in the 70th anniversary celebrations for the Israeli state in Jerusalem. Perhaps the music industry could consider action like that too. If this conflict is not resolved or no steps are taken we should reconsider our artists' participation in the Eurovision next year.

We need to act individually as citizens and as a Government to bring Israel to the table. The two-state solution is not on Israel's agenda although it seems to be on the world's agenda. Until it is, there will be no further progress on this issue.