Thank you, Chairman. I thought you were going to nominate me next for assassination. I will be answer three specific questions. One was raised by Deputy Mitchell and echoed by other Deputies on the European Union and what can be done. There is a political vacuum and the European Union is well placed to act within it. Since the Oslo process, Israel has not had to pay for its obligations as an occupying power under the Geneva Convention. Donor countries have stepped in. My salary is paid by the Government of Sweden. Other members of my unit are paid by the Dutch, Norwegian or British governments, etc. A situation exists whereby many members of the Palestinian Authority and of the government are almost effectively employed directly by the European Union or by donor countries. This is particularly true of the security sources who are paid directly by senior figures such as military commanders within the PA. I am attempting to answer two questions at once.
Since the European Union is donating so much money to the Palestinians, there is room to demand accountability at the same time for where the money goes. This may sound patronising and neo-colonial, but a generation - almost a class - of NGO workers is springing up where there is money to pay for certain types of charity work. A charity known as au Canun - the Law - which has just gone under, was heavily funded by donor governments because it was essentially a branch of the Communist Party that dealt with human rights. It criticised the PA as well as criticising Israel. People liked the fact that it did this and that the charity seemed to be balanced. However, it pocketed $6 million of the $10 million it was given, because there was no accountability, etc. With the money can come accountability. There is a massive EU presence across the territories and within Israel. There is no reason more accountants could not be included among the number of people who go there. I work on the energy negotiations, in addition to covering Jerusalem and the wall, and massive amounts of money are being allocated. Some €200,000 has just been allocated for three experts and I am not entirely sure what the purpose is. To allocate a budget with accountability is a great way to ensure certain things get done. If they are to be done properly, however, and if members of the security forces are not going to be paid in cash, but through the banks, the banking system must be seen to be credible and not subject to random seizures by the Israeli army.
In parallel with organising and accountability a significant political track must be in evidence. This is where the EU also has leverage over Israel - through the association agreement and the volume of trade that Israel does with the European Union. The European Union, by making life difficult for Israel economically, could quickly make it spring to attention and not always by censuring the Government. A specific example relates to the labelling of goods which come from settlements. A relatively small percentage of goods come from settlements. However, all goods from Israel are branded with the same brush because it is not known what comes from a settlement and what is exported from Israel proper. Genuine honest Israeli businessman are pressuring the settlers and the Government to pressure the settlers to make the changes to label their products accurately. In this way a dynamic or momentum is being created within Israel which constitutes a desire for change within the Israeli people. They are being given the incentive to change because it directly harms their economic interests. These are two strings and they are both financial. We know it is only financial pressure that works as was seen with "the first" George Bush when he held back on loan guarantees for the first time during the first Gulf war. That would be two avenues for change, one in the context of PA reform or nation building, and the second over Israel.
We have touched upon the EU-Israel association agreement. I understand a delegation of parliamentarians is to formally petition the Irish Presidency for the abrogation of the association agreement on 4 May. I would strongly urge that the association agreement with Israel be broken. It is the equivalent of granting China full membership of the World Trade Organisation: one cannot have a situation where business is being done while countries turn a blind eye to sweat shops and human rights abuses. The situation is exactly the same with Israel. Why is Israel so fond of letting the few Palestinians who are employed come to work in those dubious grey area zones between Israel and the occupied territories? It is simple - because health and safety laws and other attributes that products must have do not apply in those zones. It is all right if someone sticks an arm in a machine and it is amputated. There is no compensation to be paid and he or she can just be fired. The association agreement is an extremely good way of financially pressurising Israel into doing something that really makes a change.
What is next down the line? Israel is undoubtedly looking for membership of the European Union at some point. Socially, Israelis play football in the European leagues and participate in the European Song Contest. All these small cultural initiatives gradually get people accustomed to seeing the Israeli flag being raised along with the European Union members' flags. It must be made perfectly clear to Israel that there will be no membership of the European Union for so long as it does not come to a full and final peace agreement with the Palestinians. That must be made absolutely clear. It must be made clear either as a stick: "You must not do this or you will not become a member of the European Union"; or as a carrot: "You can become a member of the European Union if you do this list of things - peace with the Palestinians, stop killing, house demolitions, etc."
There is a high European Union presence in the territories and in Israel. Substantial numbers of people are there already. Mark Ott, the European Union peace envoy, is an incredibly active, engaged and well-informed man. However, his recommendations are not being acted upon. He knows exactly what the situation is, with the wall and the settlement expansions. He understands the correlation between it all. However, I not see what comes next after his visits. He comes, he visits us and the Israelis, he discusses and he returns. There appears to be a stasis in action, a slight freeze. At the same time I would question how the European Union might fully benefit from the resources already committed there.
There is something else that the European Union and more specifically Ireland, could do. Ireland has fantastic relations with the United States. It possibly has more access to the US presidency than any other country. We know Ireland has raised the Palestinian issue every time with the US. We thank Ireland for that and advocate that it keeps on raising the Palestinian issue with the US presidency - and with all members of the US Government - and if possible, when Irish delegations come to see the territories, they should bring US representatives with them. It is so effective when people see with their own eyes what is going on in the territories. The only way to really change those decision makers is for them to get out of their armoured cars for just a moment and see what life is like on the Palestinian streets. Then they understand why there must be change and a resolution to the conflict.
We heard some questions on unilateral steps. Unilateral steps work in two ways. There must be political unilateral steps and the creation of facts on the ground. My unit had some success in raising money because it is partly funded by the Norwegian Government. This was used to pay for tents for those farmers who, cut off from their land by the wall, can now sleep in their fields. This has been successful because they can continue to tend their crops and make money if they can bring their goods to town and sell them. We have bought them a season, maybe only one season. This was a small investment, maybe $25,000, just to save one agricultural area. We must see more of this but it is difficult to encourage someone to sleep in their field when a wall has been placed between one's house and one's field. We have seen a lot of unarmed peaceful resistance to the bulldozers as they have been coming in, similar to what occurred in the first intifada. We have seen what the Israeli Government has done in these cases, none of which has hit the news in quite the same way. However, in Beit Surik, north of Jerusalem, three unarmed civilians were killed. One was a 65 year old man who died from the inhalation of the particularly nasty tear gas that the Israelis use. The two others were shot dead, while a fourth is brain-dead in hospital and will shortly die. We need to see facts on the ground but when people wonder why we do not protest peacefully, they should know that peaceful protesters are being shot. Let me remind the committee that one in every 100 Palestinians has been killed or injured in the last three years of the intifada.
My final point on unilateral action refers to my first point. The Palestinians are using the fora that are available, that is why they have brought a case on the wall to the ICJ. That case had some success in what is possibly the most accessible avenue for our battles, namely, the media. The ICJ engaged many people. One could see the killing of Sheikh Yassin as a response to the Palestinian success in uniting people, making them feel that there was a common goal and that the world was with us.
The final question was on the peace movement. It has been very difficult for the Palestinian and Israeli peace movements to formally meet and do anything, because Israelis are forbidden from coming to the West Bank. They are not allowed in unless they wear a green uniform and carry a rifle. We do not see many unarmed Israelis. However, it is worth pointing out that some Israelis have been very brave in protesting about the fence alongside Palestinians, including Gil Na'amati, who was shot and hospitalised for supporting an unarmed Palestinian protest against the fence. We would like to see more co-ordinated peaceful protesting but it is obviously difficult, given that Israelis are not allowed to visit us.
