Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-13-Speech-3-074"
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"en.20041013.4.3-074"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, Mr Solana, concerning the situation in the Middle East, what conclusions might we, as Members of the European Parliament, draw one year after the Geneva agreements, which we greeted with hope since the road map was getting bogged down, one year after plenary debates on the application of the association agreement between Israel and the European Union, and a few months after the condemnation of the wall, both by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
in Geneva and by the International Court of Justice in The Hague? As has been said, the overall outcome amounts to a blood bath; and, as Mr Patten said, he who lives by the sword will perish by the sword.
Since the second intifada, there have been 4 350 deaths, including the deaths of 3 500 Palestinians; 33 600 houses have been destroyed; and, since the ‘Day of Penitence’ operation orchestrated by the Sharon government, 120 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed. Three Israelis are, indeed, three too many, Mr Tannock, but so too are the 120 Palestinians, and I should not have dared to mention, as you did, that two Israeli children were killed when it is known that, two days ago, a little Palestinian girl carrying a schoolbag was murdered by Israeli soldiers and finished off by an officer, who shot her in the head. I should not have dared to bring up such matters, but I do so today.
So what are we, the European Parliament, able to do? We would question you as to the role that the European Union can play at Quartet level. What, however, can we, as MEPs, do other than return continually in this House to the association agreements and again condemn what is indefensible in international law? What can we do? Our powerlessness is combined with anger. There are many of us who travel to Palestine. I spent half of my holidays there with Palestinian teachers dealing with the Palestinian children traumatised by the war. Here in this Parliament, we are neither an NGO nor people who sign blank cheques, for we monitor the issuing of our cheques. We cannot, however, resign ourselves to this powerlessness and to the idea that Europe would forget international law."@en1
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