Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-10-Speech-1-038"
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"en.20080310.15.1-038"2
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"The next item is the President’s statement on the situation in Gaza. The chairs of the political groups will outline their respective positions on this issue. They have, however, asked me to make a statement too, and I have gladly acceded to their request.
Providing the population of Gaza with minimal humanitarian aid and otherwise ignoring them cannot be a durable and viable solution. The European Union is helping to alleviate distress with its humanitarian assistance, but its priority must now be to make a greater long-term political investment so that its financial generosity is channelled in the most strategically desirable direction.
At the donors’ conference in Paris last December, where the European Parliament was also represented, the European Union pledged EUR 540 million for 2008 to support the process launched in Annapolis. The new Pegase funding mechanism is already operating.
The European Parliament wants the European Union to lend vigorous support and assistance to the peace process. As the budgetary authority, however, we must ensure that our financial commitment does not miss its target. All parties will have to realise that the European Union cannot have military actions destroying the fruits of our financial solidarity.
It is the will of the European Parliament to work hard, as an honest broker, for a solution to the Middle East conflict. Our new working group on the Middle East intends to contribute to the pursuit of that goal. In two weeks’ time, together with the follow-up group of the Paris donors’ conference, comprising the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, the Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Tony Blair, Special Envoy of the Middle East Quartet, we shall be discussing progress in the actual delivery of our aid.
If the European Union is to act as an honest broker, even-handedness is imperative. However, if we focus on the constant diplomatic struggle to describe the escalation in Israel and Gaza in an even-handed manner, we are liable to forget that people, not words, are meant to be at the heart of our policies. What is termed the Annapolis Process must not be used as a smokescreen behind which the settlement policy remains in place and the Palestinian territories continue to be sealed off with countless security zones that restrict people’s freedom of movement.
The situation of the Palestinian population cannot improve unless people can move freely in Gaza and the West Bank. Without freedom of movement, the establishment of a stable Palestinian state is inconceivable. Security has more than just a military dimension. Security cannot be achieved unless people in Israel and Palestine acknowledge and respect each other. Security begins with reconciliation. The time has come to sow the seeds of lasting reconciliation between Palestinians too. Hamas must alter its position and work alongside moderate Palestinians to build peace. Once again I declare our support for President Mahmud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
One of the keys to success is an arrangement on the crossing points along the border of the Gaza Strip, with high priority attaching to a rapid solution for cross-border traffic at the Karni and Rafah crossings. This is an area where the European Union bears special responsibility too.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us do everything in our power to back up our financial commitment with consistent political action so that we can contribute to peace in the Middle East and, above all, give our support to the people of the Middle East.
In view of the escalation in the Middle East, there was an urgent need to put the current situation on the agenda once more. We Europeans are again asking ourselves what we can do, how we are to react to the spiral of violence that is causing the Middle East to flare up once again before our eyes.
To come straight to the point, the only response is the resolute pursuit and emphatic fast-tracking of the peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The peace process launched in Annapolis must not be destroyed by violence and terrorism. As Members of the European Parliament, we must do everything in our power to prevent that.
The television images of victims of the conflict that reach us daily are harrowing. If we were moved to sympathy and outrage a week ago by the sight of the innocent Palestinian civilians, including many children, who lost their lives in Gaza because of the disproportionate use of military force, since last Thursday’s appalling murderous attack on a school in Jerusalem we have been sharing the sadness and anger of the Israeli population.
Sympathy is a noble virtue in politics too, but sympathy is not enough. Sympathy is no substitute for political action. Viable political solutions must be found rationally on the basis of clear principles. The protection of human life and respect for international law are embodiments of such principles, and they must therefore be our benchmarks.
On behalf of the European Parliament I strongly condemn the acts of violence perpetrated by Hamas and other Palestinian extremists. On behalf of the European Parliament I ask the Government of Israel to listen to the voices both within the country itself and beyond its borders that are calling on it to match its rhetoric with actions designed to promote peace.
The Gaza Strip has become the running sore of the Middle East. To some people it is a thorn in the flesh, because extremists are in political control there. Many would like to turn their backs on it, to detach the Gaza Strip from the rest of the world and pretend it did not exist. Behind the walls that already exist there and those that are currently being built along the Egyptian border live people – men, women and children who have the right to decent living conditions – and people do not tolerate walls and divisions for ever.
People are afraid. We sympathise deeply with the population of places like Sderot and Ashkelon who live in daily fear of new mortar attacks. We take Israel’s security very seriously, and we shall always defend it. The European Parliament and I myself, during my visit at the end of May 2007 to Israel and the Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip, have repeated that message countless times. Mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip must stop. That kind of resistance is terrorism, and it is non-negotiable as far as we are concerned.
Yet while people’s emotions are being ruled by fear, death is final, and no one can bring back the hundreds of people whose lives have been sacrificed to Israel’s security needs since the Gaza Strip was sealed off. We must question the proportionality and the expedience of this approach. We must also ask whether it is consistent with international law that the population of any territory should suffer for the extremism of their leaders."@en1
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