As you read
this I will be in the Middle East. The purpose of the visit is to meet key
players in the region, and to receive first hand information about the current
conditions there. I have an invitation from UNWRA, the United Nations agency
which provides aid to the Palestinian people, to visit Gaza but as yet have no
word on whether that the Israeli government will permit this.
On Thursday I
will be meeting with President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah
and with Israeli Labour leader Issac Herzog in Tel Aviv. I will write more on this
next week.
The enormity
of the violence and of the resulting humanitarian crisis in Syria and Iraq, and
the impact of the growth of Islamic State, have all dominated the news agenda
of recent time. They have also grabbed the attention of the international community.
For a brief
period in the summer the decades long conflict involving the Palestinians and
the Israelis replaced those headlines with images of huge explosions in Gaza, Israeli
attacks on hospitals and U.N. safe havens and the twisted bodies of scores of
Palestinian children.
Much of Gaza was
reduced to rubble. It services and public utilities, including water and
sewage, which have all been stretched to breaking point by years of the Israeli
siege, are now grossly inadequate. For those who live in this huge open air
prison the Israeli assault devastated their lives and traumatised millions.
Three weeks
ago Amnesty International accused Israel of war crimes during its assault on
Gaza. It also acknowledged that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes
firing thousands of rocks that killed 6 civilians. However the bulk of its
criticism was aimed at Israel. During the 52 day conflict 2,200 Palestinians,
mostly civilians, were killed and 18,000 homes destroyed.
My
constituency of Louth is roughly the same size as Gaza but Gaza has fifteen
times the population. Almost two million people are packed into that small
area. Imagine the impact that so many deaths, the loss of so many homes, and
the destruction of much of the public infrastructure would have on Ireland’s
smallest county and the people who live there, if it was subject to such
overwhelming ruin and destruction?
Amnesty
documents eight specific incidents in which Israeli forces killed 104
civilians, including 62 children, when they targeted eight homes. According to
Philip Luther Amnesty’s Director for the Middle East the report ‘exposes a pattern of attacks on civilian
homes by Israeli forces which have shown a shocking disregard for the lives of
Palestinian civilians, who were given no warning and had no chance to flee.’
We have seen
it all before. Cyclical war – international condemnation – and nothing really
changes. Every couple of years the underlying tensions between an Israeli state
occupying and stealing Palestinian land and resources, and a Palestinian people
denied their right to sovereignty and independence erupts into a major
conflagration.
And then for a
brief period the international community will call for peace talks. An
initiative might be taken. But ultimately nothing much will change for the
people who live in that region.
In recent
weeks there have been more announcements of new Israeli settlements in East
Jerusalem. Israel plans to build 4,000 housing units. Violence on the streets
over Israeli plans and actions has led to a series of attacks on Israeli
citizens, including one in which four rabbis and a policeman in a synagogue
were killed. Palestinians have died also.
To add to the
tensions the Israeli Cabinet last week voted in favour of the ‘Jewish State’. At
its core the debate around this Bill is about declaring the state of Israel as
the national homeland of the Jewish people. Prime Minister Netanyahu claims
that this new law will ‘strengthen the
State of Israel as Jewish and democratic’ while ensuring ‘full equality, before the law, of every
citizen without reference to religion, race or gender.’
But the fear
of those Palestinians who live in Israel and those occupied by Israeli forces,
is that all of this will reinforce the apartheid nature of the current arrangement
and reinforce the ghettoisation of the Palestinian people.
Even within
the Israeli Parliament there is strong opposition to the Bill. Opposition
leader Isaac Herzog (Labour) described the "Jewish State bill" as provocative,
irresponsible and unnecessary.
Too often in
between the different phases of conflict the world looks away from what is
happening in Israel or the west Bank or Jerusalem or Gaza. Despite all the talk
of a peace process and of US and European Union support for meaningful
negotiations they lose interest or acquiesce to an Israeli government strategy
which seeks to keep the Palestinian people physically divided, economically
impoverished and politically weak.
It is a recipe
for continuing and escalating conflict.
The tragedy is
that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians and Israelis want peace. They
know that this requires mutual respect and good neighbourliness. They know too
the likely shape of the outcome – a two state solution.
Exasperated by
the lack of progress in the peace process the Palestinian Authority has been
pushing for greater international recognition of Palestinian statehood. In 2012
it was granted non-member observer status in the U.N.
Recently the
Swedish government officially recognised the state of Palestine. This followed
a non binding vote in the British Parliament and in the Irish Seanad, in Spain
and in France and yesterday in Belgium. The European Union’s newly appointed foreign policy chief,
Frederica Mogherini, publicly said at the beginning of November that, ‘We need a Palestinian state ... that is the
ultimate goal and this is the position of all the European Union.’
The Dáil
should now move to debate this issue and the Irish government should recognise
the state of Palestine and upgrade the Palestinian Mission in Dublin to that of
a full embassy.
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