Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-09-27-Speech-2-568-000"
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"en.20110927.30.2-568-000"2
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"Madam President, Baroness Ashton, we need to be clear today. For many Palestinians – and I have just come back from visiting Ramallah and the Palestinian universities – the two-state solution is no longer on the agenda. The Israelis are not willing to accept it. Let us not delude ourselves: Israel is making a two-state solution increasingly impossible.
We are right to argue for two States, but we need to appreciate the Palestinians’ frustration. There is one thing that I do not understand. Like the Socialists, we support President Abbas’s request to the United Nations (UN). The words that he used: ‘There is not a State too many in the Middle East, but there is one State missing,’ imply that the State of Israel is legitimate but that a Palestinian state is needed. This is a wording that we can all sign up to. What I fail to understand, Baroness Ashton, is why you have come here to say that you regret Israel’s announcement today that it will be building a further 1 100 housing units. You could at least condemn that decision. Do not express regret. Say that it is not possible. Make that clear.
Then, even though we are in favour of immediate recognition for the Palestinian state, you should at least tell the Israelis that if they continue to build, you will push for the European States to agree to recognise the Palestinian state forthwith. Give them a taste of their own medicine. They say that they want to negotiate, but at the same time they are continuing the occupation. Take political action, Lady Ashton. Politics is not a prayer and a hope.
There are hundreds of thousands of people in Israel today who are opposed to Mr Netanyahu’s policy. The European Union, and we here today, need to be honest. Mr Tannock, let us not be cynical.
The State of Israel was unilaterally recognised by the UN in 1947, which was only right. It was right. There were no negotiations with the Arab nations. It was the right thing to do. Mr Tannock, you tell us that Israel is supporting the Palestinians by supplying water. In reality, Israel is stealing Palestinian water and selling it back to them. Do you call that support? Let us move away from this cynical attitude in Europe.
If, today, we do not all stand and say to the Israelis: ‘You understand peace to mean peace for Israel, to mean that Israel can have a place in the Middle East and even dream of a United States of the Middle East where everyone has their place’, then Israel will not understand that it is in its best interest to have a Palestinian state. Baroness Ashton, you need to tell the Israelis that they will not find other Palestinian representatives like Mr Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad and that although Hamas is currently opposed to Mr Abbas’s initiative, that is because the party knows that this initiative is the only way to have two states in the Middle East.
I think that your position is too weak. You have not said at any point how you will compel the Israelis to negotiate. This is an implausible fiction. They say that they want unconditional negotiations because, on the ground, the conditions are being changed, the occupation is continuing. Tell the Israelis that either they stop the settlements straight away – stop the colonisation and construction – or the European Union will support recognition for the Palestinian state now, at the 66th meeting of the United Nations.
If you do not do this, Baroness Ashton, you will find that there will not be any negotiations in six months’ time. A year down the line, we will be in the same position as we are now. You will come back here and say: ‘The Israelis and Palestinians need to understand that negotiation is the only way to achieve peace’. They will achieve peace, Lady Ashton, if we tell the Israelis that when it comes to defending the State of Israel, they have gone too far and enough is enough. If we take that tone with them, you will find that things will change."@en1
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