Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 October 2012
15. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if his attention has been drawn to the recently released UN report, 27 August 2012, which states that Gaza will not be liveable by 2020, barring immediate action; if he has raised the damning report with the Israeli Government; and if he will take any action on this report. [44802/12]
View answerIreland has consistently stressed that conditions in Gaza are already intolerable, that problems in areas such as education, sewage and drinking water are progressively worsening, and that these conditions, allied to a growing young population and huge unemployment, are creating textbook conditions for militant groups to flourish and recruit. The recent UN report ‘Gaza in 2020’ only reinforces these messages. I visited Gaza myself in January this year, to see conditions for myself. The blockade makes it impossible for local authorities or international organisations to keep pace with the need for basic services in a rapidly growing population. The UN report underlines this. Schools in Gaza already work on double shifts, and there is presently a demand for an additional 250 schools. In recognition of these problems, Ireland has provided €12m to UNRWA since 2010 to provide basic education, health and social services to Palestinian refugees, and a further €500,000 to UNRWA’s food aid programme in Gaza. But outside aid can at best only ameliorate the problems, as long as the blockade stifles normal economic activity.
The Government’s conviction that the blockade causes unnecessary hardship for the civilian population in Gaza and those working to assist them is made clear unequivocally to the Israeli authorities at every opportunity. In my meetings with PM Netanyahu and FM Liberman in January, I stressed the futility of the blockade, and that it is counter-productive to Israel’s security concerns. Ireland will continue to raise these concerns and to urge the Israeli authorities to fundamentally alter their policies in relation to Gaza and open up the border crossings to all normal commercial, humanitarian and human traffic, as called for in Security Council Resolution 1860 of January 2009.
