Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-15-Speech-3-173"
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"en.20061115.14.3-173"2
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"Mr President, I have just come back from Palestine. I set off without any prejudices or preconceived ideas, but the situation I found was worse than I had expected: it is a powder keg ready to explode, and it will have a domino effect throughout the area.
Nine months is the length of time that wages have not been paid because of the blockade on money transfers, with the result that public offices are locked up, schools are closed, and hospitals are only accepting the all too frequent emergencies. Eleven thousand is the number of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, including 400 children and 41 members of parliament elected in polls that the international community accepted were free and transparent. Nineteen, including twelve minors, is the death toll of the clashes of the last few days, which in fact started the day after we left. Nine hundred and twelve kilometres is the length of the gigantic wall that is tearing the country apart and separating entire families, for reasons that have little or nothing to do with security. Nine hundred thousand olive trees, some of them centuries old, have been destroyed to make this impressive but useless structure. Eighty-seven per cent is the poverty rate in Gaza, where all outside links have been cut and importing or exporting goods is impossible. One thousand three hundred and fifteen metres is the width of Gaza’s militarised border, which can only be crossed on foot, even by the elderly and children, after interminable checks: it is an incredibly grim crossing, like something from another time. Even so, as you wander the streets there is still a glimmer of hope in people’s tired eyes.
Europe still has a chance to redeem itself, if we start again from where we left off and pick up the thread that has recently been broken. Let us work towards a fair and just solution providing for two peoples and two states: security for the State of Israel, the recognition of which is not up for discussion, and rights for a free and independent Palestine. Time is up: either we adopt a strong, incisive initiative now, or otherwise we must accept full responsibility for having been unwilling or unable to do enough."@en1
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