Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-24-Speech-3-183"
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"en.20030924.3.3-183"2
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"Mr President, the Israeli threats to assassinate Yasser Arafat are not just morally reprehensible, but also politically unacceptable and absurd, unless, of course, the intention is to cause chaos in the region. It is as if we were not all aware that Hamas and Islamic Jihad consider Arafat to be the barrier preventing them from attempting an assault on Israel. How are the Palestinians going to negotiate with people who intend, in this way, to assassinate their President, democratically elected in 1996 in fair and democratic elections, in the presence of observers, including ours? Frankly, the only legitimate and morally acceptable way to get rid of Arafat is by means of the elections laid down in the roadmap.
George Bush has just said, although it sounds like sarcasm, that ‘in the United States we free people by means of a peaceful and ordered process’ but, nevertheless, has vetoed a resolution in the Security Council which advocated just that and expressed opposition to political assassination. I would like to highlight here and now the political realism of President Chirac, who said in New York, and I quote verbatim, Mr President: ‘you may think what you like about Arafat, but the truth is that he is the authority, the elected and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. I do not believe that anyone else can impose an agreement on the Palestinians’. End of quote.
Within this context, and in relation to the settlements, it offers little hope that Colin Powell should have said on Monday, and I quote, that: ‘it is very difficult, if not impossible, for the Israeli Prime Minister to say to his people that he is giving in to American pressure’. End of quote. I would ask myself: have the Palestinians not given in, by reforming the Ministry of Finance and creating the post of Prime Minister against the initial will of Arafat although, at the end of the day, with his assent?
Incidentally, however, if you wish to listen to an Israeli voice on the subject of Yasser Arafat, then please listen to Simon Peres, who – on reaching 80 years old – has said: firstly, that Arafat has accepted the theory of two states, abandoning that of the destruction of the state of Israel; secondly, that he has accepted the 1967 borders, abandoning those of 1948, and, thirdly, that he has agreed to negotiate. Simon Peres says – and it is true – that Yasser Arafat only has one significant fault, which is that he is not combating the fundamentalist militias of Hamas and Jihad. I, however, would say that until the Israeli Government adopts specific measures, which are credible to the Palestinian population, on selective assassinations, the settlements or the wall of shame, for example, no Palestinian will enjoy the popularity and political support necessary to combat the Islamic extremists.
Mr President, not until the non-terrorists have a consolidated political space, which so far Israel has not provided, will the terrorists have lost the war."@en1
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