Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Martin IrishCentral
Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Martin has told an Irish Government committee that his official request to visit Gaza was refused by the Israeli authorities.
"I just wanted to go in and see Gaza" said Minister Martin.
...It is not the first time a European Minister has being refused entry to Gaza.
Chairman of the Dáil Committee on European Affairs Bernard Durkan felt that the move by Israel to block a foreign minister from visiting Gaza was "totally intolerable" and that an Irish minister's request "to assess a humanitarian situation is almost without precedent and is tantamount to censorship."
Durkan also voiced his opposition to the blockade of Gaza, which is vehemently opposed by the Irish and Europeans alike.
“The continuing blockade of Gaza by Israel is utterly unjustified." He also said Israel was "unwilling to let the outside world see the suffering which is going on."
...Israel was condemned in a recent Human Rights report in which they were accused of committing war crimes during the short Israeli incursion into Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009. Full story
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