Apologies have been received from Deputy Fahey and Senator Callely.
I remind members and people in the public Gallery to ensure their mobile and BlackBerry phones are switched off for the duration of the meeting as they cause interference, even on silent mode, with the recording equipment in the committee rooms.
The minutes of the meeting of 24 June have been circulated. Are there any matters arising?
Yes, arising from the minutes there is the matter of Ezra Yizhak Nawi's court case. I thank the committee for its support in this matter. If it is appropriate, I would like to express my gratitude to the Minister for Foreign Affairs with whom I have been in touch over this matter. He intervened directly when there was some confusion about whether it would have been good idea for the representatives of Ireland, both from Ramallah and Tel Aviv, to turn up at the court. When I spoke with Ezra, his view was that it may be crowded and unpleasant for them. He is a rather shy and diffident man in those circumstances although not in others. It was all cleared up and they are there now.
The hearings are ongoing but it has been postponed inexplicably for several hours. A large international crowd has gathered outside the court room and there is a suggestion the judge may be nervous because the case has attracted much international attention, including the front page of The New York Times and The Irish Times plans to do an article on it. It is a significant matter in which the committee played a useful role. It is important we support honourable Israeli citizens who take a stand on human rights.
The Government is also acting in an extraordinary manner with regard to the piratical attack by the Israeli Navy on the Spirit of Humanity, an unarmed vessel boarded 24 nautical miles outside of the coastline of Palestine. This seems to me to be quite illegal. There were some Irish citizens on board the vessel and it is welcome there is Irish involvement in this matter. The Red Cross has said the citizens of Gaza are in despair. The vessel’s cargo of toys, medicines and food was bound for there. Previously, a ship on a similar mission was sunk by the Israeli Navy. Luckily, the passengers and crew were taken off, including an 84 year old Holocaust survivor. I say that to pre-empt any suggestion of anti-Israeli or anti-Jewish feeling. The actions of Ezra Nawi, the Holocaust survivor and of those Irish people involved in Hebron and on the Spirit of Humanity are upholding the noble, humanitarian traditions and spirit of Judaism, which has been so betrayed by the Administration in Tel Aviv.
Senator Norris has covered the points I wished to make. In addition to the points he made and arising from the minutes of the last meeting, I take it that our letter to Ambassador Evrony has been sent. Has a reply to it been received?
The letter has been sent but we are still awaiting a reply. Is the Deputy referring to the letter relating to Ezra Nawi?
We had an extended discussion at our previous meeting on the unsatisfactory nature of the ambassador's letter. We were not making Mr. Nawi's case——
We agreed to wait for his account, which was due to be provided by Senator Norris.
That has been received.
That is correct.
There was some difficulty in extracting it. Ezra is dyslexic, so I was obliged to obtain it through another source. He is not, and never was, the greatest writer.
I do not wish to repeat what I said at the previous meeting. It is not necessary as most of the same people are here and I am sensitive to that. However, the letter we received from the ambassador was entirely unsatisfactory. We decided, in replying to and making a refutation of that letter, to obtain Mr. Nawi's account. I am satisfied with that approach but we should send a further letter to the ambassador in respect of the boarding of the Spirit of Humanity and holding people who are peace activists. We should also reply to some of the language that has been used in the statements issued.
We are dealing with a country with a record of sinking a boat or interfering with one located 24 nautical miles offshore or which is implementing a naval blockade. Unlike the position in this country, there are not always two sides to every story in the jurisdiction to which I refer. In this case there are not two sides to the story — there has been a breach of international law and people are being deprived of necessary medicines. The committee must reflect this in its correspondence. A view is sometimes taken that one can always reach a moral conclusion in respect of a matter of this nature by endlessly stating that one must hear both sides. If one wanted to be particularly convoluted about it, one could invent a third side.
I am perfectly happy to wait until our next meeting to hear how the committee has dealt with the first correspondence in respect of Mr. Nawi's position, the boarding of the Spirit of Humanity and the imposition of a naval blockade, the status thereof in international law, and so on. I have tried to initiate courteous communications with Dr. Evrony but he has recently taken to writing to the leader of my party, who would also be delighted to meet him to discuss certain issues.
The committee should take a strong position on this issue. There are some of us who have been involved with these matters for a long period. While some progress has been made, there has been none in respect of illegal settlements — which remain in place — the demolition of houses and compliance with human rights law in the form of the EuroMed agreement. In addition, very little progress has been made with regard to people's right to return, and so on, and, therefore, we are merely drifting. In the committee's correspondence I would like to see evidence of an attempt to arrest that drift. The action we have taken most recently is probably better than that which we took in the past.
We received correspondence in respect of Mr. Nawi. Fortunately, we have now moved on from that point. Initially, he declined, for the reasons to which Senator Norris referred, to have somebody present. The Department of Foreign Affairs has stated that it will give him any support possible——
The Department has been very good.
----both there and subsequently. That is the current position.
I take it that it is agreed that we should send a letter in respect of the position regarding the Spirit of Humanity? Agreed. We have been in contact with the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is currently monitoring the position. We will pursue the matter further. Are the minutes of our previous meeting agreed? Agreed.
