Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My esteemed colleague Senator O'Sullivan referred to the novel Apeirogonby Colum McCann. This is one of the best books I have read in the past year or two. Essentially, it is about the futility of war. It is about Rami, an Israeli whose daughter was killed in a suicide bombing, and Bassam, a Palestinian whose daughter Abir was shot by an Israeli soldier. The novel is about how these two men found one another and found that more united them than divided them. They spend their lives travelling the world, essentially talking about the need for people to work together. Colum McCann spent a lot of time with Rami and Bassam because this is based on a true story, and he really cracked it. It is a wonderful story around what is now their life's work to try to bring peace to the Middle East and to bring peace between Israel and Palestine.

One of the reasons I was particularly interested in reading this book was because many years ago I spent several months in Israel. I worked on a kibbutz near Ashkelon, just six miles from the Gaza Strip. A number of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip worked in the kibbutz. I worked with them and became friends with them in what is called a padres, which is a citrus fruit orchard. A good friend and I were called "Team Ireland". Interestingly enough, this was the very first time this kibbutz had allowed Germans come to work as volunteers on the kibbutz. There were six Germans, who were engineers in their gap year in college and had decided to come to Israel. They spent their whole time apologising for what the Germans had done to the Jews. The kibbutz itself was named Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, in honour of Mordechai Anielewicz, a Polish Jew who led an uprising in Poland. The Jews had no home in central Europe.Others like him came by boat across the Mediterranean Sea to this particular kibbutz, which was three miles from the sea. They pitched up with nothing and built a good life for themselves and their families but, more importantly, they dwelt in ease and peace with their Palestinian neighbours.

I learned a lot during my time there about how people could genuinely work together. I had nothing but good experiences with both Israelis and Palestinians but a lot is wrong in their country. I spent Christmas Eve in Bethlehem. Myself and my friend got tickets for midnight mass. We met some Arabs who lived in Bethlehem but they were not allowed into Manger Square, even though they lived in the city, which shocked me. I recall looking up as we went into Manger Square and seeing snipers all around. It was actually quite a dangerous place to be because of the conflict. I was in my very early 20s at the time and I remember being quite shocked at some of the stories I heard. I learned more and continued to be very interested in the conflict.

I am proud that our country has been consistently forthright in expressing concern regarding the unequal treatment of Palestinians and the application of different standards in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, both bilaterally and at EU and UN level, including at the UN Security Council. As a country, we have been very proactive in consistently highlighting these issues, including demolitions and settlement expansion, at the UN Security Council during our current term. There is no doubt that Israel must cease evictions and demolitions and comply with its obligations as an occupying power under international law. It must also allow those who want to support the Palestinians to enter their country to do so. Approximately three years ago, Ms Elaine Daly and a number of others who used to go in and do a lot of work, particularly with Palestinian children, were not allowed into Israel because they were supporting Palestinians. They were supporting them in a very peaceful way and in a way that the children needed. That is something that we must call for too.

I welcome this debate. Apeirogon is a mathematical term for an object that has an infinite number of sides. This is not a black and white issue. It is not simple. We have to work to help people on both sides, in a two-state solution, to live and work together peacefully.