Martin urges EU foreign chiefs to visit Gaza in wake of refusal

MINISTER FOR Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin is urging a delegation of European Union foreign ministers to visit Gaza in the wake of the refusal of the Israeli government to permit him and other EU ministers, individually, to go there.

Mr Martin was refused entry earlier this month and French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has also been refused permission to enter Gaza.

Mr Martin said he had written to the incoming EU Spanish presidency and foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos “and it is my view that perhaps a delegation of EU foreign ministers should go to Gaza.”

He added: “There has been an attempt to suppress information about Gaza, to keep a lid on it, so to speak and prevent the wider world from knowing what is going on as regards the deprivation there and the unacceptable humanitarian situation and the inability to rebuild Gaza because of the unacceptable blockade.”

During Dáil question time Mr Martin said of efforts to visit Gaza, that “we are not doing this to be provocative. We are doing it to draw attention to the plight of Gaza as well as to see at first hand what is happening on the ground there.”

The Minister told Fine Gael foreign affairs spokesman Billy Timmins, who raised the issue, that “fears had been expressed on the Israeli side that a visit to Gaza would serve to legitimise Hamas, irrespective of whether meetings with Hamas representatives took place.” This, he said, was an “unconvincing” explanation.

“Supposed security considerations have also been cited. This is a matter of deep disappointment and concern to me.”

Mr Timmins urged the Minister to “make further requests to the Israelis and through the European Council to try to get the blockade lifted for a time to get in the much-needed supplies”.

Moreover, he pointed to the destruction of the “industrial and intellectual bases” in Gaza which were wiped out during the Israeli military operation a year ago.

Mr Martin said it was an “undeclared but de facto policy of not letting senior political figures such as foreign ministers enter the Gaza Strip from Israel”, but “I intend to pursue the matter further”, he added.