Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-22-Speech-3-232"
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"en.20031022.9.3-232"2
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"Mr President, the report before us is undoubtedly a well-intentioned document. It is very long, and not one understanding or balanced remark is missing from it. It can justifiably be said to be a very long report, considering how little it has to say that is new. The whole thing could be summarised in the words from recital A: ‘whereas the time has come to end the violence and widespread terror that has existed in the region since well before the launch of the United Nations partition plan in 1947 and the founding of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948’. ‘[T]he time has come to end the violence’. How very true, its having so far been going on for some thousands of years. It is nice that the European Parliament thinks it knows exactly what should be done, but it is not particularly nice that this cannot, and will not, be done. This report might usefully be kept, for it could also be used next year and the year after that, for nothing will come of what it contains.
Another document has been published in the last few days, contrastingly more interesting than this report. The document is entitled ‘Arab Human Development Report 2003’ and has been issued by the UNDP, that is to say the United Nations Development Programme. This comprehensive report, written by Arab scholars, explains why the situation in the Middle East continues to go off the rails. It is an account of the massive suppression of knowledge, political freedom and freedom of expression that characterises the Arab world. It is an account of the brainwashing of children and of the way in which women are deprived of control over their own affairs. It is an account of 270 million people living in the darkness of the Middle Ages. Let us debate peace and dignity in the Middle East in the light of the UNDP's report. To do so requires far greater effort than the showy but ultimately vacuous offerings that the European Parliament has come up with in its own report. It is a matter of urgency, moreover, for the time bomb is ticking in the Middle East."@en1
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