Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-19-Speech-2-013"
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"en.20070619.4.2-013"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that we can all agree that what we have heard today is an analysis. Mistakes have, without a doubt, been made by interested parties on every side, and when I say that we are paying bitterly for them now, by ‘we’ I mean above all else the Palestinians, but also – or so I believe – the Israelis and all those with an interest in this region having, for once, something to look forward to – not just a peaceful future, but any kind of future at all.
What can be done? That is the question I would like to focus on. For a start, the European Union must at last wake up and do something about the mistakes that have been made here, and the reason why it is the European Union that must act is that it is the only political entity in a position to act as a mediator; the Americans cannot do it – the war in Iraq makes that impossible – and nor can the Russians or any of the others.
Someone has to take the initiative in saying ‘yes’ – ‘yes’ to direct aid payments, ‘yes’ of course to support, ‘yes’ to contacts with Gaza and with Hamas in order to address the humanitarian problems in the Gaza Strip. That means not waiting for a declaration, but rather taking action and then getting a declaration – that is what is called for; it means going straight to the heart of the nation in the name of the European Union and carrying on straightaway with a European quintet – which is, in essence, what is being attempted even if it is not being called that – with a great big conference held in the region.
Mr Schulz is right to say that we have to talk to Syria and with everyone we want to – and, in any case, must – negotiate with about the Golan Heights and the borders of Lebanon, and that has to be done now. Why? Because that is the only chance that the region will have of renewed hope. It is renewed hope that makes political dialogue possible and not the other way round.
We are always being warned against giving any one side preferential treatment; nobody in this region is going to be given any. That is what we have to learn from all this. That means without a doubt that humanitarian aid for Gaza must be forthcoming; it is in nobody’s interest that the only humanitarian aid it gets should come from Iran, and if that happens, we will again shed tears and say that we did not want that. Well, if that is not what we want, let us prevent it, and if we want to prevent that from happening, we have to take action; that is what is needed, and right now.
What Israel has to come to understand is that a policy of occupation founded upon a wall that is perceived as an injustice will not bring peace, and it will not bring hope either; they have to get that into their heads once and for all. For them, getting out of a worst-case scenario must mean doing what they have not done before, that is to say negotiating with the new government in Palestine the demolition of the wall and the establishment of a secure boundary on the other side of it. That means that financial assistance, humanitarian aid and political initiative are called for, and if those things are not forthcoming, then, month after month, there will be weepings and lamentations when we meet here."@en1
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