I move:
That Seanad Éireann, seriously concerned at the recent escalation of violent incidents in Israel and the Occupied Territories, calls upon the Minister for Foreign Affairs, in his capacity as President of the Council of Ministers, to exert every effort to end this cycle of violence and to encourage a dialogue which would lead to a settlement of the tragic conflict there.
It is appropriate this morning that we should be taking this debate. At this moment in Dublin Castle the Minister for Foreign Affairs is chairing a meeting of the ministerial Troika on the Middle East. This, as part of the Euro-Arab official dialogue, had been reconvened in Dublin. It is the second time during the Irish Presidency that the Troika has met to discuss this subject and we must compliment the Minister on his initiative in making certain that the question of the Palestinians is brought to the fore during the Irish Presidency.
Today, we should concentrate on two aspects on this problem. The motion deals specifically with the area of Israel and the Occupied Territories, but I am sure that nobody will worry too much if it drifts a little into other areas of conflict in the Middle East.
I have felt for some time that the only way this conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians can be resolved is by direct confrontation or direct talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The Palestinians have the PLO as their leaders and as their Government. The Israelis have stated time and time again that they will not speak to the PLO. Therefore, dialogue cannot take place. This is regrettable. We have spoken on many occasions and in many places of the urgency of convening an international conference on the Middle East. We have seen the question of this conference brought to the forefront of international argument. We have equally seen it disappear into limbo whenever some other international matter of immediate concern bursts upon the international stage.
What is the difference now? Why the increased urgency? Where does the question of the Arab-Israeli conflict stand now on the international stage? The motion speaks about increased escalation of violence in the Occupied Territories. I suppose the violence that has occurred over the past number of years is something similar to the violence that is occurring in the North of Ireland for many years. People seem to get numbed by constant reference to this type of violence. Two recent incidents would show the type of violence and the escalation that is occurring.
On 26 April at the Jabaliya camp near Gaza there was an official attack on citizens of that area which resulted in three deaths and 215 injuries among the Palestinian refugees there. Again, we had an unofficial attack on 20 May at Rish Lezion which is basically the slave market of that area. It is where the people from the Gaza Strip gather and sell themselves as cheap labour to the Israelis. The attack there is said to have been caused by somebody who was not fully compos mentis but it resulted in 70 people killed and 30 people wounded. It has escalated violence not alone in the Occupied Territories but for the first time inside the State of Israel in the town of Jerusalem.
We are living in a time of unprecedented political change and of potential major realignment of the world political and economic powers. The changes which have taken place in eastern Europe have caused many people to rethink their attitude to traditional borders and regimes. There is a danger in that in the new realignments we will see in the short term a build-up of regional, ethnic and religious tensions which will need the full attention of the international community if they are to be resolved.
Looking at the super powers it would have been reasonable to assume that the American Government would be too concerned with the political situation in Central and South America and with efforts to cement relations with Russia and eastern Europe to concentrate on the resolution of the major Middle East conflict. One might also have assumed that there would be a greater concentration on discussions with Iran on the release of the American and other hostages held presumably in Lebanon by people over whom Iran may have influence than on the major conflict in the area. The defeat in Nicaragua of the Ortega Government by Mrs. Chamorro has opened up new horizons for the Americans in that country and one presumes that this would reduce their efforts in other areas of the world.
Fortunately, the Middle East has continued to hold the attention of the larger nations who are prepared to devote time and attention to assist in the resolution of the problems there. The Baker initiative was a welcome effort to broker a first ever Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. While it does not go far enough in the direction of an international conference it is a first step. It is a pity that Israel has so far been unable to take that step and has been unwilling to agree to meet Palestinian representatives who would have a mandate to speak on behalf of their brothers in the Occupied Territories, including East Jerusalem. I hope the present consultations in Israel will lead to a government that is ready to match the courage of the PLO in accepting this dialogue.
There is a vacuum in Israeli politics at present and this vacuum is very valuable to the caretaker government because it basically allows them to do anything they want to do without the sanction of their erstwhile partners in the Labour Party. An attempt is being made this week to cobble together a government which will include very right-wing elements who will bring nothing to the peace process but could lead to further escalation of violence because it is within the mandate of the extreme right-wing people there to annex further land in the Occupied Territories. This could have very dangerous consequences not alone for people in the Middle East but it could escalate problems outside the territories. There is a slim hope that the same thing will happen to the present Government in their attempt to cobble together a government, that happened to the Labour Party when they attempted to get a government together, namely, that at the last moment people will pull out of the agreements that were made and that, as has been suggested, there may be a return to the Government of national consensus, as it was called at the time.
We have to be aware that the range of opportunity is limited. Israel is already on notice that the United States will work on this initiative only so long as there is a realistic hope of it being accepted. There are, as I have said, other calls on their time when they could consider potentially more fruitful if there is no movement in the Arab-Israeli conflict. We have seen a withdrawal from negotiations by the United States because, as they see it at present, there is no point in trying to progress the Baker plan when there is no government in Israel. They have to have somebody to speak to. The Baker plan, which is encouraging, cannot be added to at present and the United States are not prepared to give it full attention until there is a stable government again in Israel.
The continuing efforts of the United States and the USSR towards a lessening of tensions on the wider world stage seem likely to be a cause of postponing again the convening of the international peace conference in the Middle East. I would argue against postponement. Changes which are taking place in the USSR are profound. I feel that some of these changes make it imperative that the international conference should be pressed by everybody who has the interest of everyone involved in the Middle East conflict at heart.
For many years the USSR has been under extreme pressure from the international community to allow its Jewish population the freedom to emigrate if it wished. There was a siege mentality at work in pre-Gorbachev USSR which did not allow a major resettlement outside her territories of citizens of the USSR on the basis of religious conviction. There was considerable odium attached to the USSR because of its policy towards its Jewish population. The attitude of the USSR would now seem to be that emigration is to be allowed to happen in an orderly manner and this is welcome.
While the USSR was under pressure over the Jewish question, the United States State Department and United States citizens were at the forefront of the battle for freedom of exit. Now that this right has been granted there are unexpected problems. It would appear that the US has put into effect a quota system which will limit the number of Jewish immigrants into the United States. It would appear that this year over 200,000 Jews will emigrate freely from the USSR. The prediction is that the majority of these will go to the place offering what is considered by them to be a safe haven. As Jews, the immigrants can go to Israel under the automatic right of return laws. The danger of this unprecedented migration is that the Israelis may allow or encourage these immigrants to settle in the Occupied Territories and that Palestinians would be expelled from their homes and their lands to make room for them. This influx of Jewish immigrants from the USSR could have further major destabilising effects on the whole area of the Middle East if they are resettled in the Occupied Territories. In the past seven years over 500,000 Jewish emigrants left the USSR. Of these 200,000 approximately went originally to Israel, but only about 700 settled in Palestinian lands.
In the 1930s the Palestinians pleaded with Britain to halt the influx of Jews from Europe. Today we cannot and should not ask the USSR to halt the exodus of Jews but the international community must ensure that the rights of Soviet Jews are not exercised at the expense of the rights of the Palestinians of the Occupied Territories. Much has been made by the Israelis at present that only a very small number of these Jews from Russia have gone to the Occupied Territories, and that they are not encouraging them to do so. Of course, there is a difference between encouraging and giving them grants to settle. They can get grants to settle in the Occupied Territories and they can get subsidised mortgages. On the one hand, they are saying that they are not encouraging but, on the other hand, they are giving them subsidised mortgages and they are giving them land at a cost which is not compatable with the prices that could be got in the area. Equally, they are forgetting that they are settling many of these Jews in Jerusalem, and in East Jerusalem in particular. There is no mention of this when the Israelis talk. This, again, is an contravention of international law and is destabilising the area further.
The prospect of major new expansion of settlements must again give a new impetus to the need for a major initiative towards the setting up of the international peace conference. The development of diplomatic relations between the USSR and Israel should eliminate one of the major stumbling blocks to the international conference. Israel has said that the absence of diplomatic relations with the USSR has been a hindrance and that the USSR would not be acceptable as a participant in the conference if they had not diplomatic relations with them. China, which is the other permanent member of the Security Council which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, should be acceptable as a participant as it has not played any major intrusive part in the politics of the region.
It is imperative that the initiatives of the PLO under its President, Yasser Arafat, should not be forgotten when we concentrate our minds on the international conference. On the international political stage, the Palestinians have grown in stature under his very able and exceptional leadership. It is time that the international community reacted positively to ensure that the efforts of all the Palestinian people to attain nationhood should not be lost. The present Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian people should be allowed to take their place among the nations of the world. We appeal to all people who might have influence on the setting up of the international conference to make every effort to allow it to take place. To the Israelis we say: "Your future and your security as a fully recognised international state is assured, but that for you to be fully recognised as an equal partner in the brotherhood of nations, you must give the recognition to the rights of the Palestinians. Give them an opportunity to sit with you to eliminate the antagonisms and to have a rebirth of confidence in the future of the area as a peaceful hub of the world and a rebirth of the historical friendships which were achieved in this, the birthplace of the three great religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam". To the USA we say: "Do not allow the intransigence of the Israelis to stop you from using all your great powers of persuasion and your diplomatic and monetary powers to ensure the initiation of the international peace conference".
The Baker plan has within it the necessary safeguards for both sides to the dispute. The role of western Europe in the convening of the international conference cannot be underestimated. The involvement of Europe in the creation of the State of Israel and her colonial intrusions in the area have played a major part in the continuing Middle East conflict. Historical ties, geographic proximity, patterns of trade and economic independence ensure that the tragic divisions and instabilities of the Middle East remain a matter of consistent concern and priority for Ireland and its partners in the EC. Ireland is a small country and should be proud of its active and constructive role in the formulation of European policy on the Palestinian question. Ireland has played a leading role in the evolution of the keynote Venice Declaration of June 1980 which still today remains the basic expression of the fundamentals of the policy of the European states towards the question.
During Ireland's Presidency of the EC in the second half of 1979 Ireland played a significant part in moving our partners towards a commitment to Palestinian self-determination, one of the two essential principles underpinning our common approach. The other is the right to the existence and security of all states in the region. The European Governments must keep up the momentum which has emerged recently and take advantage of every opportunity to push the conference concept.
The road to peace is not an easy one. The setting up of an international conference is a difficult task, but I feel that the process has been helped by the great suffering under which the people of the Occupied Territories have lived before and during the period of the intifada. The intifada has been of tremendous importance in concentrating the attention of the media worldwide on the living conditions of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. The Palestinian people have been making a statement to the world for the past three years, a statement of their rejection of the inhuman conditions under which they have been forced to exist for the past number of generations under illegal Israeli occupation. Generations of Palestinians have grown up in refugee camps, lacking the most basic of human rights, with no hope of a better life and with no hope of giving to their children the basic human demands of adequate food, accommodation and hope for the future.
The intifada has shown the world that the human heart is indomitable, that hope springs eternal and that there is a way of confronting superior power in a dignified manner which has attracted the attention of the world media. The intifada has had a profound effect on the perception, particularly in the West, of the plight of the Palestinians. The popular movement in the West Bank and Gaza has been an expression of genuine democratic reaction to oppression. The popular conception of Israel as an oppressed people have changed. The oppressed have been patently seen to be the oppressors. The focus of the world media on the struggle of the intifada has been on the civil rights violations by the Israelis and has clearly demonstrated a dynamic that is deep-rooted and has crossed all the boundaries of class, creed, political and factional affiliations among the Palestinians. The leadership of the PLO outside the Occupied Territories has responded in a very responsive and sensitive manner to the populist uprising. The people in the Occupied Territories have succeeded in articulating the values of the Palestinians, the cohesiveness of the Palestinian people in their struggle against oppression, a sensitivity to the different aims and values of the Palestinian people and have shown by the confrontation between people and troops that in a world where right has been associated with might the rights of the children emerge as a beacon of hope in a sea of oppression.
The politicisation of the Palestinian struggle entered a new and very important stage when the residents of the Occupied Territories said collectively "Enough is enough". A new dimension has been brought into the struggle against oppression. Israel, as well as world opinion, is changing as a result of the intifada. The struggle of the Palestinian people is a struggle which will be concluded successfully. If the Israelis continue to go down the road they are going, I am afraid they are in fact committing suicide. It will happen. They will commit political suicide if they do not allow an international conference to take place; if they do not want to have an international conference, they should sit down and talk directly to the other people who are involved in the conflict.
It is strange, I suppose, to bring an Irish patriot into this discussion, but when we talk about the struggle of the Palestinians and how long they have been struggling — they have been struggling now since prior to 1947 — we can recall Roger Casement in his speech in the dock saying some words which are appropriate to this debate and I think we should all take them into account, to bring into focus the urgency of having a resolution of the problem there. Roger Casement in his speech from the dock said:
Ireland has soon her sons, aye, and her daughters too, suffer from generation to generation always for the same cause, meeting always the same fate and always at the hands of the same power, always a fresh generation has passed on to withstand the same oppression.
The cause that begets this indomitable persistency, the faculty of preserving through centuries of misery the remembrance of lost liberty, this surely is the noblest cause man ever strove for, ever lived for, ever died for. If this be the cause I stand here indicated for and convicted of sustaining, then, I stand in goodly company and a right noble succession.
The other aspect of this conflict we should address ourselves to is the violations of international law in the Occupied Territories, as defined under article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel was a signatory to this convention. It has to be noted that so far Israel's cosignatories have singly failed to provide effective protection for the civilian population of the Occupied Territories, which is what this Fourth Geneva Convention was all about. The Government, former Ministers and the Minister have at all times appealed for a cessation of Israel's serious violations of international law in the Occupied Territories and have encouraged the engagement of all parties of this view in negotiations aimed at a just and durable settlement of the conflict.
The Irish Government regard as illegal the pursuit of an annexationist agenda by Israel. This is noted in the Ministerial Troika meeting on 2 April 1990 by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Gerard Collins. This position is backed up by Ireland's agreement with the international consensus on the applicable international law in those territories.
Earlier this year, in responding to a question in the Dáil on 7 February, Deputy Collins stressed that
the provisions of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of the Civilian Population in Time of War are applicable to the Occupied Territories.
Ireland has also expressed this view in the forum of the United Nations. After the killings of several Palestinian civilians by Israeli soldiers at the West Bank village of Nahalin last year, the General Assembly reaffirmed once again
that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12th August 1949, is applicable to Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel, including East Jerusalem
and demanded
that Israel, the Occupying Power, abide scrupulously by the (Fourth) Geneva Convention... and that it desist immediately from its policies and practices that are violations of the Convention.
With regard to more specific violations, the Irish Government have taken note of the distressing scale of suffering inflicted on the civilian population in the Occupied Territories since the beginning of the uprising. On 30 November 1989, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Calleary, emphasised in the Seanad the consensus of the Twelve in these points when he said:
Some 650 Palestinians have been killed since the disturbances in the Occupied Territories began almost two years ago, many thousands have been injured and tens of thousands have been detained... As the Twelve, we have had to repeat to Israel our rejections of the violent methods being used to attempt to bring the Palestinians to heel. We decry the shooting of children, collective punishments such as the deliberate destruction of family homes and the arbitrary holding of people without trial in "administrative detention". We also deplore the measures taken to deny the Palestinian people their right to education by the forced closure for two years now of the universities and the regular disruption of the secondary school year, most recently for two months from the beginning of November.
Ten days later, on 9 December, the day the uprising entered its third year, Ireland joined its European partners in a European Council Declaration that demonstrated the alarm of the Twelve not only at the more immediate human rights abuses by the occupying power, but also at the longer term implications of Israel's policies on the social and economic welfare of the population protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention. I quote:
Seriously concerned by the violations of human rights in the Occupied Territories and recalling the need for the occupying power to observe strictly its obligations under the 4th Geneva Convention to which it has notably not conformed in such basic areas as education and health, the European Council deplores the continuous deterioration of the situation in the Occupied Territories which seriously affects the living conditions of the people, compromises in a lasting fashion the future of Palestinian society and prevents the economic and social development of the Territories.
Since January of this year Ireland has held the Presidency of the European Community. In the traditional start-of-Presidency speech to MEPs at Strasbourg on 16 January, Deputy Collins cited the search for a settlement of the Israeli-Occupied Territories as a foreign policy priority during the Irish Presidency. Ireland had, in fact, already begun to demonstrate its interest in this area by initiating on January 14th a formal démarche to Israel by the Twelve, expressing concern
at the unjustified use of generalised violence against hundreds of people during authorised and peaceful demonstrations in Jerusalem on 29-30 December 1989; and that the current guidelines appear to permit the use of firearms in situations which are nonlife threatening...
The Twelve therefore appealed to Israel:
to allow peaceful demonstrations to proceed freely; to cease using excessive force to put down demonstrations and other manifestations of the uprising; to ensure that law enforcement officials do not exceed their powers; and to review urgently the guidelines on opening fire.
Since the beginning of this year Israel's policy of illegal settlement in the Occupied Territories has given rise to much concern and apprehension on the part of Ireland and its European partners. As President of the European Community, Ireland has been vocal on the illegality of settlement activity and the threat the policy poses to the prospects for peace in the area. In a statement by the Twelve, meeting in European Political Co-operation on 20 February, the Foreign Ministers reiterated their view that:
Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories, including East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law... The Twelve deplore the Israeli settlement policy in the Occupied Territories. The Israeli statements on this matter are not conducive to establishing the climate necessary to make the progress which is urgently needed in the peace process.
On 2 April in the context of a Troika meeting, Deputy Collins clarified the legal and political issues at stake in the continuing establishment of Israel by settlements in the Occupied Territories, and I quote:
The settlement by an Occupying Power of its own population in the territory it has occupied is contrary to the Fourth Geneva Convention. Thus, the settlement of parts of the population of Israel in any parts of these territories is illegal and the Twelve have consistently expressed their opposition to it. Withdrawal from the territory occupied is an essential element of a peace settlement. Over time, a policy of settling occupied territories amounts to creeping annexation. It makes withdrawal, without which there will be no settlement, much more difficult.
The last two extracts I have quoted makes it quite clear that the Foreign Ministers of the European Community are painfully aware of the contradiction between allowing Israel to continue its ultra vires exercise of de facto sovereignty and its violations of international humanitarian law in the Occupied Territories, on the one hand, and the commitment of the Community to promote the prospects of peace in the area, on the other. This was summarised most forcibly by Deputy Collins in the Dáil on 7 February this year, when he said:
I cannot overestimate the need to open dialogue in order to reach a peace settlement which alone can ensure the rights and legitimate aspirations of each of the parties. It is my firm conviction that the measures currently being applied by Israel in the Occupied Territories are not conducive to the climate of confidence necessary for any negotiation.
This, then, is the position in Ireland. Since 1967, and with increasing intensity over the past two and a half years, Israel has been engaging in serious violations of international humanitarian law in the Occupied Territories. Ireland, along with its European partners, has frequently demanded that Israel cease and desist from such violations. Moreover, as we have heard, Ireland is actually bound by its own legal duties, which both parliamentarians and the legal community here take very seriously, to ensure that such violations cease.
In addressing ourselves to the motion before us this morning I think we should add that we should urge the Minister and the Government to do everything possible to ensure that the violations of international law do not continue as well as making every effort to ensure that meaningful talks can take place which might give impetus to a settlement of this particularly tragic conflict. It has to be said that unless this conflict is brought to a reasonable speedy conclusion destabilisation can occur not alone in the actual territories involved but outside them. Ireland is a country which is not too far from this area and we have ties with it which I do not think we should break. It is a motion I have great pleasure in placing before the Seanad this morning.