Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-14-Speech-3-974"
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"en.20090114.16.3-974"2
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"Mr President, it is an incontrovertible fact that the civilian population in Gaza and southern Israel have been deprived of the right to an existence worthy of human beings. One news agency told a story of two children who were about to cross the road in Gaza. They did not look right or left to see if anything was coming – they looked up because they were afraid of what might come down from the sky.
There are clearly two guilty parties when it comes to Gaza’s massive humanitarian crisis. The irresponsible action of Hamas in the Palestinian territories, the cowardly way in which it hides among the civilian population, and the provocation it engenders with its rocket attacks are all indications of the unsustainability of the Palestinian government. Israel’s disproportionate attack on the already frail and desperate Palestinian enclave is another indication of its indifference to international humanitarian obligations.
We must call for an end to this madness in the shape of an immediate and permanent ceasefire. As a first step, Israel should allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, where an improvement to living conditions would also constitute one of the paths to peace in the long term.
The Middle East Quartet needs to make a move in the right direction, with the new US administration showing the way. Egypt has a special responsibility, because of matters to do with borders, and its role as mediator with the Union has given us hope.
World history shows that the quest for peace pays off in the end. We cannot give in, adapt or become accustomed to the notion of an unresolved conflict, because there is no such thing. According to Nobel Peace Prize Winner Martti Ahtisaari, peace is a matter of will. The international community may try to encourage and foster this will, but only the parties concerned can produce it, and lasting peace.
Commissioner, could you take this message from Europe: ‘People of the Holy Land, show that you want peace.’"@en1
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