The European Union considers Israel's construction of a barrier in the West Bank illegal despite abstaining on a vote to ask the World Court to rule on it, the Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr Dick Roche said this afternoon.
Mr Roche told the European Parliament that the Irish presidency would stick to a decision taken in December under Italy's presidency that the EU should abstain.
The position was adopted after the UN General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice to rule on the legality of the barrier, seen by Israel as an essential defence against suicide bombers but denounced by Palestinians as a land grab.
"The decision to abstain...was based on the conviction of many (EU) Member States that transferring the matter of the wall to a legal forum would do nothing to advance the political process necessary for peace," Mr Roche said.
"Abstention did not in any way suggest that the European Union's position that the wall was in contravention of international law had changed."
But the EU considered a court ruling "inappropriate".
A number of lawmakers questioned whether the bloc's position was sufficiently robust, Mr but Roche dismissed their challenge.
"It must be clear from our...statement that the Irish presidency would strongly hold to the view that the current situation was unacceptable," he said after a debate.
"I come from a small island where we know something about divides and walls and separations."