Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-11-Speech-3-132"
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"en.20040211.5.3-132"2
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"Madam President, it is a matter of great regret that the European Council has not supported the examination of the Israeli wall at the International Court of Justice. This is a hugely wasted opportunity. Opposition to a hearing at the ICJ, because it is a legal – not a political – forum, misses the point. The ICJ is probably the last available instrument of pressure on Tel Aviv, and we should be grasping it with both hands. Those people who say that instead we should be relying on European pressure on Israel should tell me when European pressure alone on Israel has ever yielded any results – it has not. Yet, when there is an international multilateral forum that exists to address this issue, we turn our backs upon it.
Palestinians rightly point to the inconsistency of our position of urging them to give up violence, while simultaneously denying them the chance to seek redress through international legal institutions. A Palestinian negotiator observed that the US, the UK and Germany asked the Palestinians not to have recourse to violence, but when the Palestinians have recourse to diplomacy the door is slammed on them.
Moreover, there are compelling humanitarian reasons to act. I visited the Occupied Territories last month and saw for myself how the wall is destroying thousands of acres of farmland and trees, demolishing homes and shops and leaving thousands of families landless, jobless, hungry and hopeless. As a result, according to studies by the World Bank and the UN, the Palestinian people have been reduced to the poverty and malnutrition levels of sub-Saharan Africa. The Israeli claim that this is something to do with security is completely undermined by the fact that the wall does not follow the 1967 'green line'. Instead, as people have said, it cuts deep into Palestinian land.
This wall is intolerable, illegal and immoral, and by failing to support the ICJ as a forum to consider it, the Council has been reckless and irresponsible. The Council has also not been transparent, and I would like a copy of the letter that contains the presidency's submission to the ICJ to be made widely available."@en1
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