Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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11. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he has been monitoring the deteriorating and worsening situation between Palestine and Israel; the added tension around religious sites in occupied East Jerusalem, combined with the fact that the Israeli Government has repeated that it will not stop building illegal settlements in Palestine; and if he shares mounting international concern that Prime Minister Netanyahu is now supporting a Bill to legally enshrine Israel as a Jewish state. [44969/14]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Ireland has consistently expressed concern at the ever increasing tension caused by Israeli policies on the ground, and in particular the relentless growth of settlements.

Israeli settlements and their continued expansion constitute a major barrier to peace.

Settlements, and related policies in Area C (which is the majority of the West Bank), seem designed to drive Palestinians off the bulk of the land they occupy, and to crowd them into the cities under PA control.

Put simply, these processes are incompatible with a genuine commitment to a peaceful and viable two-State solution, and must cast doubt on the good intentions of any Government that pursues them.

In public statements on 1 September and again on 28 October I explicitly condemned Israeli government announcements of further settlement expansion, and called for these decisions to be reversed.

It is essential for both sides, but in particular the occupying authorities, to avoid actions that will increase tension and confrontation. I would call in particular for respect for the status quo in relation to the Holy Places. I note and welcome the pledge in this regard issued by Prime Minister Netanyahu and King Abdullah of Jordan in their meeting in Amman last week, alongside US Secretary of State Kerry.

While the resumption of talks is important, we believe that it is also important to work to influence and change those policies on the ground which are directly destructive of the chances for a peace agreement.

The separate question of Israel as an explicitly Jewish State is a complex one in internal Israeli politics, with no clear definition of what this would mean.

The reaction of the Palestinian President has been that it is a matter for Israelis how they define their state, so long as the equal rights of non-Jewish citizens are not infringed. This seems to me a sensible position.