TD calls for ambassador’s expulsion as Evrony defends offensive

AN impassioned Fianna Fáil deputy broke ranks with TDs yesterday, publicly declaring Israel a “rogue state” and demanding that the Israeli ambassador be expelled from Ireland.

Chris Andrews declared that international sanctions be instigated against Israel.

The Israeli ambassador, Zion Evrony, defended Israel’s offensive in Gaza, declaring that Hamas militants were unlike the IRA and not open to change.

Tensions flared during the appearance of Israeli and Palestinian representatives at an Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee.

Ambassadors from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, India and Chile and diplomats from Britain, Finland, Spain and Morocco were present.

Mr Andrews said he had witnessed Israel’s blockade of Gaza during a visit six weeks ago: “Israel has descended to a level of such brutality that it can only be classified as a terrorist state.”

Israel had ignored the UN and was “acting as a rogue state”, the TD said.

Evrony claimed for eight years a quarter of a million Israelis had suffered the trauma of regular Hamas rocket and mortar attacks.

“Try to imagine Dublin with 8,000 missile attacks day after day, night after night. What would you do? What would you expect the Taoiseach to do?” he said.

Evrony argues that Hamas were unlike the IRA and wanted to solely live by religious terms and were not open to change.

The ambassador admitted Israeli forces were using phosphorous munitions but said these were legal.

The head of the General Delegation of Palestine in Ireland, Hikmat Ajjuri, said Israel had failed to implement 30 Security Council resolutions.

He said half of the hundreds of people killed and thousands injured in Gaza were women and children and this had transformed the region from “a big prison into an abattoir”.

Attacks against Gaza, the most densely populated area on earth and half the size of Louth, had also seen support grow for Israeli ministers ahead of an election next month, Ajjuri said.

Labour’s Michael D Higgins called for an immediate cease-fire in the region.

The committee agreed to summon the Iranian ambassador to appear over allegations Iranian rockets were being smuggled into Gaza and fired into Israel.