Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I have had the privilege of visiting Israel on 14 or 15 occasions over the past 20 years. I remember the first time I visited I got a bus from Tel Aviv to Cairo through Gaza City and Rafah at the border during the intifada. It is so different. It seems that we have travelled so far backwards since then. As Irish people we, to a certain extent, understand more than many other countries conflict, different traditions and how people can hate one another in real terms.

I have been in Gaza City when sound bombs were flown in by the Israeli Defense Forces. They flew in at the speed of sound at low altitudes, shattering windows, causing miscarriages, waking people up in the middle of the night and scaring the life out of them because they thought they were being bombed when in fact it is just a sonic boom. I have had stones thrown at me in Hebron. I have also sat around tables in West Jerusalem with ordinary decent Israeli citizens and broken bread with them on Shabbat. I have sat in settlements with people I consider less than decent citizens and argued the toss with them on their illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. I have stood refugee camps in places like Nablus.

I have seen this from both sides. There are of course parallels with our own troubles on this island, yet it is so far away from what we have experienced. In recent days Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested Palestinians actually celebrate when they are bombed because they can say that the world community will come out and get behind them and that the world community supports Palestine. To me, that demonstrates a flippancy that is totally inappropriate given what is happening at the moment and shows an absolute lack of understanding about how the world sees this. If the world was behind Palestine, Israel would not be part of the international community. It would instead be relegated to a small part of the world that is subject to sanctions, but it is not.

I do not think that is our fault; it is primarily the fault of the United States which continues to supply Israel with military aid, trade and investment. Whatever about that, when the Israeli state says things like "Everybody is against us, it is so unfair, it is desperate how the world thinks", one has to ask why on earth it thinks that. When it bombs media buildings in Gaza, hospitals and homes, and every time there is an outbreak of conflict in this part of the world the number and proportion of casualties between the two sides is in the region of a factor of ten, one would wonder why it thinks people would not be appalled by its behaviour.

I do not think the answer is always to say how awful is Israel and how much it breaches international law and behaves in a way that is totally unreasonable. Yet, when one looks at the situation one has to say, without ever taking sides, that all of the might and military power is on one side and, therefore, all of the responsibility is to be born by Israel. When it reacts disproportionately, which is what it does time and again, it spends its international capital. God knows, there are communities in this country and throughout the world that want to support the Israeli state and the Jewish state and the right of Israel to exist. We all recognise that. The problem is that Israel spends that capital every time it flies bombs into Gaza with only seconds of warning for people to get out of buildings. We can see the effect of that in the casualties that have been reported.

I deeply respect the commitment of the Minister to this issue and the fact he has spoken strongly on it. We as a nation must do that and stand up to these abuses. It is not an anti-Israel position; rather, it is an anti-Israeli behaviour position. I speak to friends on both sides of this debate. The people who are pro-Israel tell me I am anti-Semitic to be as pro-Palestine as I am. I am not anti-Semitic. I am an enormous fan of the Jewish nation and have friends who live in Tel Aviv, Haifa and other cities in Israel who are Israeli and Jewish, but there is a distinction between those ordinary, decent people who do not support this activity and the Israeli Defense Forces and state that continue to overstep the mark of reason, go beyond what is proportionate, spend their reputation and throw it down the drain.

It is not anti-Semitic to oppose Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. It is not anti-Semitic to oppose the killing of innocents in places like Gaza. That is not anti-Semitic; it is reasonable and respecting our international obligations and role as a member of the international community to call out exactly this kind of activity. I praise the Minister for doing so and hope he will continue to do so. I hope he will use our diplomatic might to do so at the highest level throughout the world.