Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-26-Speech-3-090"
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"en.20050126.7.3-090"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, High Representative, I should like to thank you for your excellent introductory remarks and for all of the congratulations that you have addressed to me. I was proud to do this work and one of the things that I can say about it is that we were extremely well received by both sides. Europe was most welcome, even from Israel’s point of view, I must say.
If I run over time, I shall miss my train; I shall therefore be brief and I should be grateful if you could forgive my rudeness because I do not have the time to listen to your responses. All I can do in the rather ridiculous amount of time that we have for debates is to point out the crucial points that should continue to be the focus of your attention.
Firstly, the forthcoming elections in Palestine will be considerably less straightforward than the previous ones, in which there was effectively only one candidate, no real battle for power and no Hamas candidate. This time it will be different, both for the municipal and for the legislative elections. The elections will be fiercely contested. I hope that the Palestinians can be persuaded to abandon the use of the civil identity register and that the municipal elections are monitored as closely as the subsequent legislative elections; this is important.
Some have said, I understand, that this is a window of opportunity and a ray of hope. The main element of that ray of hope is based on the undeniable quality and depth of the Palestinian people’s democratic will. My friend Mr McMillan-Scott said this straightaway. He is right – this is a choice to pursue peace, as well as a choice to pursue democracy.
We are less sure about the other side. Mr Sharon’s decision to pull out of Gaza is to be applauded, but I should like to draw the House’s attention to the fact that, from our point of view and that of the roadmap, there is no link in Prime Minister Sharon’s rhetoric between Gaza and the rest, and he offers no guarantee that, after Gaza, he is considering the West Bank and Jerusalem. This is an absolutely key issue.
My second point concerns the eradication of terrorism. There is much that we can do. Mr Sharon is right to set demands, Mahmoud Abbas is right to set about doing this and is doing so with courage. He is sociologically under an occupying foreign force, so it is impossible to eradicate terrorism completely. I feel that Mr Sharon, an experienced general, knows what he is talking about; he knows that by demanding an end to all terrorism before any talks can resume, he is asking the impossible so that he can be sure of not getting it. Perhaps he needs to be told that terrorism will be eradicated from Palestine when, as one people, the Palestinians will be able to hope for a different life. This will involve the economy, opening the borders, trade, work, creativity and a political perspective. These are the conditions, and I feel that it is our duty, as well as that of the international community, to remind him.
I should also like to point out that, until now, nothing has contradicted the tragic analysis made by an eminent Israeli academic in a book that you know well, High Representative, because I lent it to you. According to this academic, Mr Sharon respects the Palestinians, does not want them to die of hunger, but is engaged in demolishing any collective identity and, in his heart, rejects the idea of a State. We should take this analysis further in our speeches and our work, in order to put pressure on him.
My last message is that I do not believe that either in Israel or in Palestine will a political authority have the legitimacy to convince people of the need to sacrifice certain symbols for peace, be it Jerusalem or the right of return, while the religious authorities themselves fail to preach peace and the sharing of those symbols based on consensus. Without that, we shall achieve nothing. Please tell them that from us."@en1
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