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Senator Mark Daly:   I am disappointed that I missed the entire presentation, but we were dealing in the Seanad Chamber with human rights as well. I am sorry I missed Mr. McIntyre’s presentation. We visited Israel earlier this year and the report is to issue in the next week or so. The EU’s trade agreements with Israel are supposed to be tied in with human rights. The EU is Israel’s biggest trade partner, without which Israel cannot function. No matter how much funding it gets from other countries, trade is its life and blood. For all our high moral and very self-righteous statements at the European Union about Israel and what it is doing, we have not exercised the power we have over Israel in terms of trade. I mean we in Ireland as part of Europe, although some people think we are not. Are we any closer to formulating a policy that we would put before the EU, indicating that we should use our clout in terms of trade to get the Israelis to be more cogniscent of the human rights of the Palestinians, particularly at border crossings? We hear of horrific cases, but we hear two sides of the same story, and they are entirely different. We hear of people in a coma who are not allowed across the border because they are considered a security threat and dying at the border crossing. Knowing we have power over the state of Israel in terms of trade, am I correct in saying we have not pushed the EU to formulate a policy regarding the recognition of human rights by Israel, which if not implemented will lead to the imposition of sanctions? I do not think this is entirely unreasonable when they are allowing people to die unnecessarily at border crossings. When one sees it on the ground one understands the security concerns of the state of Israel, but they go miles beyond the point. As a result, innocent people are left to perish.

Twelve months ago the Human Rights Commissioner came to the sub-committee and we tried to identify with him ten topics that we as a sub-committee would look after. I would be interested in Mr. McIntyre's point of view as to what we as a sub-committee could do. He is involved in this every day, but we are tied up on many other issues. How would he see this sub-committee working effectively within the limited time and resources we have and what should the issues be? By asking the Government of South Africa to intervene in Zimbabwe he is pointing the finger at it and saying it could do it if it wished.