Oireachtas committees urge EU to play more active role in Middle East

THE EU must play a more active role in the Middle East and use its significant economic and political influence in the region, a report published by two Oireachtas committees has stated.

The report, based on a visit by five TDs to Israel and the Palestinian territories, also demands that Israel open border crossings and allow basic materials such as windows and doors into Gaza to repair 40,000 homes damaged during last winter’s military conflict.

Foreign affairs committee chairman Dr Michael Woods said it was “not reasonable or right for Israel to use the complexity of the issues involved as justification for allowing the intolerable humanitarian conditions which prevail in the West Bank and Gaza to continue”.

The report notes that more than €4.5 billion in international funding is available for the reconstruction of Gaza but it cannot be spent because of Israel’s refusal to allow materials in.

Dr Woods said a solution to the Middle East conflict was a “fundamental European interest”, and it was crucial that US president Barack Obama and the US “stay deeply and urgently involved”.

The report demands an immediate end to “illegal settlement activities” and an end to rocket attacks by Hamas on civilian Israeli communities.

Dr Woods also appealed to Israel to reconsider the “disturbing” expulsion and forcible return to Gaza of a Bethlehem University student, Berlanty Azzam.

European affairs committee chairman Bernard Durkan said: “Nothing will ever happen unless there is a recognition of each other’s existence and right to exist.”

He said they had to get back to the negotiating table to agree a “peace deal based on the two-state solution”.

Labour foreign affairs spokesman Michael D Higgins described Gaza as “a pathetic place at the present time and it is deeply depressing that there isn’t a proper engagement of the EU”.

Mr Higgins rejected comparisons frequently made between the Troubles and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The most obvious difference, he said, was that in the North, even when talks broke down, “the secretariat in the bunker kept things going”.

“When the US is interested, there is international interest, and when the US withdraws, everything gets worse,” he added.

Labour spokesman on European affairs Joe Costello said: “The EU can’t stand idly by. It must begin to play its part properly. It is the biggest provider of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians and the biggest entity trading with the Israeli government.”

There had to be proper monitoring of EU trading agreements with Israel, which required compliance with human rights obligations. “It’s very difficult to see that in this situation,” Mr Costello said.

Labour TD Joanna Tuffy said Ireland should play the role of “honest broker” in the process and, rather than being critical, should seek to build a positive approach with both sides.

Senator David Norris warned however against “too much fairness and balance”.

“We must criticise,” he said. Israel said its military operation was a direct response to rocket attacks, “but the attacks had completely ceased”, he added.

An Israeli embassy spokesman who attended the report’s launch said that was not true and there had been hundreds of rocket attacks daily on Israeli soil.

In a statement, the embassy said Israel acknowledged the need to facilitate humanitarian supplies to Gaza and, since January, “about 599,150 tons of aid and over 88,106,526 litres of fuel have been delivered to the Gaza strip”.

However, Dr Woods said this was “nowhere near sufficient and will result in severe and absolutely needless hardship”.