Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-22-Speech-2-272"

PredicateValue (sorted: default)
rdf:type
dcterms:Date
dcterms:Is Part Of
dcterms:Language
lpv:document identification number
"en.20070522.25.2-272"2
lpv:hasSubsequent
lpv:speaker
lpv:spokenAs
lpv:translated text
"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we all long for peace in the Middle East. Nonetheless, the suggestion that the European Union should resume provision of its entire package of financial aid directly to the government of the Palestinian Authority is decidedly premature. Holding democratic elections in a country is not enough to justify the award of European aid. The European Union certainly does refuse to allow expenditure of its taxpayers’ money in a number of democratic countries. I believe there are two fundamental reasons for disallowing expenditure. The first is if the country concerned simply does not require our aid. The second is if the country concerned does not recognise or does not implement fundamental principles that are crucial for the European Union. It is this second reason that applies to Palestine. Essentially, the disagreement over financing does not centre on Israel or Palestine; it centres on our own principles. The potential beneficiary is refusing to recognise the donor’s right to implement certain basic principles. We should not be spending time debating when to use the terms terrorism or fight for freedom. What we should instead be debating is whether it is possible to support an organisation whose programme centres on promoting the use of force against others. Can we support those who really do not want peace? The answer to the question as to whether we should finance authorities that do not want peace is obvious, or so it would seem. We should not. The reasons why we should deny support have nothing to do with the chaos in the Palestinian Authority, or with the uncertainty about how long the national unity government is likely to be able to govern. They have nothing to do with how long that government will be able to exercise genuine power. They have nothing to do either with the fact that 50 Palestinians were killed last week in clashes between and nor do they have anything to do with the fact that children’s television broadcasts by the station call on Palestinian children to help destroy Israel and take part in the war. The main reason why we should deny aid is that we must be true to our own principles, values and past. It should be clearly stated that the choice between victory and martyrdom offered by Prime Minister Hanieh is flawed and detrimental to the national interests of the Palestinian people."@en1
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata
"Al-Aksa"1
"Fatah"1

Named graphs describing this resource:

1http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/English.ttl.gz
2http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/Events_and_structure.ttl.gz
3http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/rdf/spokenAs.ttl.gz

The resource appears as object in 2 triples

Context graph