An Irish politician has defended comments in which he appeared to call for a violent Palestinian uprising.
Paul Murphy, a Socialist Party MEP for Dublin, said his suggestion of a new intifada to defeat “Israeli oppression” was “entirely justified and clearly necessary”.
Mr Murphy first made the comments in an interview discussing European Union guidelines on Israeli West Bank settlements.
He said that to find peace in the Middle East there was the need for Palestinians to “redevelop a struggle along the lines of the first intifada”.
The first intifada began in 1987 and saw four years of violent disobedience, with more than 1,000 Palestinians and around 185 Israelis killed.
His remarks were criticised by fellow MEPs, including Conservative representative for London Marina Yannakoudakis, who said they were “unwarranted and frankly quite nauseating”.
Zionist Federation chairman Paul Charney described them as “disgraceful and highly irresponsible”.