Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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51. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the status of the Government's efforts to seek compensation from Israel for the illegal destruction of EU-funded structures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13276/18]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In October 2017 Ireland and eight other EU members of the West Bank Protection Consortium delivered a formal demarche to the Israeli authorities protesting the demolition or confiscation of structures in the West Bank provided as humanitarian relief by the EU and member States, and calling for compensation or restitution by Israel.

The Israeli authorities responded that the structures were demolished or confiscated because they were erected without planning permission. This is to ignore the fact that such permission is almost never granted to Palestinians, and that the relief in question was provided because of the failure of Israeli authorities to provide for adequate schools or other facilities for the Palestinian population under occupation, or to shelter families whose own property had been demolished. The purpose of the demarche was to highlight the unacceptability of these practices, and to seek restitution for the loss to European taxpayers. The principle rather than the money was the main focus of the action.

Earlier today the Irish Ambassador participated in a further similar demarche to the Israeli authorities, seeking compensation or restitution for a school building demolished in February in the threatened Palestinian community of Abu Nawar, a case we have discussed here in the Dáil.