SINN FÉIN PRESIDENT Gerry Adams has been denied entry into Gaza by Israeli authorities.
The Louth TD is currently on a three-day tour of Israel and Palestine and intended to travel to the region to meet with those affected by the recent conflict.
Yesterday he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank. He also met with Dr Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative, and Israeli Labour Party leader Issac Herzog.
Adams had received an invite from the United Nations Works and Relief Agency to visit Gaza. He had last visited the region in 2009.
Speaking about the situation, Adams described it as “deeply disappointing”, saying:
Preventing me from travelling to Gaza and talking to those citizens who have survived three Israeli assaults in the last decade and who are besieged and in need of massive aid to rebuild their shattered economy and society, runs contrary to the needs of a peace process and is very unhelpful.
“The Israeli decision,” Adams said, “is a reminder of the imperative of supporting the Palestinian efforts to secure UN and international recognition of the Palestinian state. That campaign has seen some success in recent months and next month it will be debated in the European Parliament.”
It is also in a small way a reminder of the apartheid system that now applies.
Adams also said that he had raised the issue of the recognition of a Palestinian state with Taoiseach in the Dáil this week and that the people of Palestine have “the right to national statehood”.
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