Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-09-Speech-2-187"
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"en.20020409.8.2-187"2
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"Mr President, firstly, I call for the same urgent, necessary attention that Europe is dedicating to the violence and bloodshed taking place in Palestine to be applied to the genocide inflicted on the Chechen people – mentioned by Mr Watson – 20% of which has already been exterminated. And Europe – it cannot be denied – has produced nothing but a cowardly silence on this matter to date.
Europe cannot claim that it is being completely neutral as regards Israel and the Palestinian Authority. We will have no moral authority for any form of mediation if, most of the time, we only ever condemn one side, if we cannot show that we are making the distinction between a democratic country, the only one in the entire region, which is, moreover, committed to respecting human rights – although we do not know for how long – and a satrapy where those suspected of collaborationism are executed without even the semblance of a trial, if we do not acknowledge the fact that the Israeli army is engaged in an armed response which may be a futile mistake and which must not and, above all, cannot be the only response, but which is caused by the repeated massacres of unarmed, blameless civilians. Few tears are shed for them.
As the High Representative, Mr Solana, said, in attempting to eliminate the infrastructures of terrorism Ariel Sharon is likely ultimately to produce fresh armies of fanatical terrorists, but we must not for one moment think that, unlike those who destroyed the Twin Towers, the Palestinian suicide bombers are not backed by an authority which is just as bloodthirsty and cynical.
We call on Ariel Sharon to withdraw and stop using armed force. That is all well and good. But what are we going to ask Yasser Arafat? Always providing Mr Arafat has a choice of whether to say ‘no’ or not, as he has done thus far. When we ask Mr Sharon to stop his violent retaliation, what guarantees, what solutions, are we going to offer him? There is talk of economic retaliation against Israel. It would be interesting if the Palestinian Authority were to be asked to carry out an inquiry into European financing, at least to reassure the European taxpayers that they are not paying the salary of officials and leaders involved in organising suicide attacks?
Europe must take a clear step and offer the Israeli democracy full integration into the Union. This would be a way to overcome its authoritative behaviour, to stabilise the institutions of the State of Israel and to offer a strategic possibility of economic development too. It would be a way of giving the Palestinian and Israeli citizens tangible hope of peace."@en1
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