Minister Ahern condemns killing of Israeli religious students in Jerusalem

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern TD, has strongly condemned the terrorist attack on a religious school in Jerusalem, which took the lives of eight young people last night.

The Minister stated:

I am horrified by the attack on the religious school in Jerusalem last night in which eight young students were brutally killed and many others injured.  Our thoughts today are with the families of the victims.

This has been an appalling week for the Israeli and the Palestinian people. As I made clear in the Seanad yesterday, and in number of statements in recent days, I have been very concerned at the deaths and injuries to civilians, including many children and young people in Gaza.  The overall humanitarian plight of the population in Gaza is also deeply worrying.

Against this appalling background, there is now an even more compelling onus on all parties to end the spiral of violence.  The only way forward is by negotiation, through the political process.  At next week’s meeting of EU Foreign Ministers and at the European Council in Brussels the EU must speak out clearly on the role it can play with the parties to ensure the credibility of the Annapolis process in the eyes of the Israeli and Palestinian people, including the ending of all violence in the region.

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Press
7 March 2008