Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-15-Speech-3-011"
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"en.20060315.2.3-011"2
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"Mr President, the speed with which President Mahmoud Abbas accepted your invitation showed the importance he attached to visiting the European Parliament, a fact that highlights the seriousness of the decision he had to take to return home suddenly. Indeed, he considered that his country could be placed in an extremely serious situation by this new and, as you rightly pointed out, deliberately humiliating escalation in Israeli violence and its inevitable consequences, all of which, like the kidnappings, were totally unacceptable, as well as being, however, unavoidable and foreseeable.
I think that this matter is of concern to the European Union on several counts, firstly because a Member State, namely the United Kingdom, had concluded an agreement with the United States and the Palestinian Authority under which it would be these two Western countries that oversaw the prison concerned. It is that agreement that Israel has flagrantly violated, despite there not having been any problems at all in the prison for four years. No prisoner has escaped or tried to do so. If, moreover – and I would address Mr Cohn-Bendit now - Israel had thought that there was a problem, President Abbas had proposed to the Israeli Government that the prisoners be transferred to Moukata under proper, indeed international, surveillance. There was therefore no excuse or basis at all for Israel’s decision. Can we accept that?
The second reason why I think this matter is of concern to the European Union is – if I may speak frankly – the EU’s systematically indulgent attitude towards, formerly, Ariel Sharon’s government and, now, that of his successor. How otherwise is it to be understood why an aspiring prime minister should dare be so reckless as to risk inflaming the already explosive situation in Palestine and in the region solely in order – and here I agree with my fellow MEPs – to appease the most extreme fringe of his electorate. It really is hard to credit. If he can allow himself to do this, it is because he knows that, on the one hand, American leaders give Israel carte blanche to do whatever it likes and that, on the other hand, Israel has got used to enjoying de facto impunity, courtesy of European leaders. We now have to ask ourselves the following question: given the results of this policy, are we going to continue blithely to look on while this new blow to peace progressively weakens the position of those Palestinians most committed to peaceful solutions including, in the first place, President Mahmoud Abbas?
These are the questions that, I believe, we have to ask ourselves. For my part, I shall submit three precise proposals tomorrow morning to the Conference of Presidents, all calling for an immediate reaction by our Parliament, the idea being formally to demonstrate our commitment to the rule of law and to a just peace in the Middle East."@en1
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