Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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246. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if his attention has been drawn to reports that the Israeli finance ministry has approved plans for the construction of 1,600 homes in the illegal Israeli settlement of Katzrin in the occupied Syrian Golan; if his attention has further been drawn to the fact that the construction and expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan is illegal under international law; if his attention has been further drawn to the fact that meanwhile discriminatory land, housing and development policies mean that Syrian residential areas are severely overcrowded; if he will condemn these latest moves to build new settlement houses; and if he will raise the issue with his Israeli counterpart. [33449/16]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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I have repeatedly made clear my view that the relentless expansion of illegal Israeli settlements is a major impediment to the achievement of peace in the Israeli-Arab conflict. We have conveyed these concerns to the Israeli authorities, and worked to focus EU attention on them. My Department cannot, however, attempt to track and take action on every report of decisions involved in this process.

Our concerns over these policies are most acute in relation to the West Bank, where they are making impossible the achievement of a peace agreement and the establishment of a Palestinian state. By contrast, it is generally acknowledged that any comprehensive peace between Israel and the Arab states will involve the return of the Golan area to Syria.

My primary focus in relation to Syria at present is on the appalling violence, destruction and slaughter afflicting the Syrian people across much of the rest of the country.