OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE:ISRAEL'S BLOCKADE of Gaza is more complex than people are prepared to admit, according to Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter.
Calling for an examination of human rights “from all perspectives”, Mr Shatter said the “elephant in the room” in relation to the blockade was the role Iran played in the region.
“We shouldn’t pretend that the tragedy is easily resolved,” he told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs yesterday.
Mr Shatter described the blockade as ill-conceived, entirely wrong and counterproductive. He said it led to the events of this week, when nine people in an aid flotilla heading for Gaza were killed during a raid by Israeli commandos. He said there should have been no loss of life this week and expressed support for the reconstruction of Gaza.
However, the Free Gaza movement contained not only activists with humanitarian motives but others engaged in a political campaign to “delegitimise” the Israeli state, he said.
He called on the movement to press not only for the reconstruction of Gaza but for a loosening of the fundamentalist hold on the area. Condemnation of the Israeli raid on the aid flotilla by an Iranian diplomat based in Dublin was “nauseating” when the regime in Tehran was shooting its own citizens and maintaining conflict in the region, he said.
Shane Dillon, the Irish activist detained by Israel during the raid, told the committee about his ordeal. He said Israeli commandos were “physically aggressive” when they stormed the Challenger 1 boat he was on. No one on board his vessel offered any physical resistance to the Israelis troops who stormed it, he said. Instead, only verbal resistance was offered.
He said the Israelis had used stun guns, assaulted people with the butt ends of rifles, pushed people to the ground and stood on them. He told the committee that the commandos also used paintball guns and smashed windows.
Responding to Israeli claims that they found weapons on board the boats, Mr Dillon said galley knives and sledge hammers were normal equipment on boats. There was one small galley knife on his boat which “never came out”.
Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Zion Evrony, initially agreed to attend yesterday’s meeting but withdrew at the last minute.Chairman Michael Woods expressed concern at Dr Evrony’s failure to attend.
