Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-05-Speech-2-021"
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"en.20000905.2.2-021"2
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"Madam President, we are witnessing a farce which bears great resemblance to the affair of Penelope's tapestry in Homer. Whenever it comes to defining the conditions of autonomy, invoked and recognised by the Palestinian State, fresh political and geopolitical issues are introduced which prevent a final solution being found to this long-standing problem.
In fact, while President Arafat is laboriously putting together a tapestry which is as useful as it is valuable for the Palestinian people and for a stable balance in the Middle East, each night, someone persistently ruins the day's achievements. Therefore today, everyone verbally acknowledges the wisdom of President Arafat who, in spite of the continued provocation suffered by the Palestinians, continues to indicate that he is open to dialogue, by adhering to the provisions of all the treaties, for example, or by putting off the date of the declaration of independence of his State, staunchly overcoming the problems caused by these decisions within his State.
The same cannot be said of other areas, and I refer to Israel where right-wing sentiment is wont constantly to upset the internal political balance, forcing Europe and the United States each time to make huge diplomatic efforts to postpone implementation of the treaties.
I do not think it would be going too far to say that all this is partly due to the approaching American elections, which cannot and must not stop the world achieving a stable balance. Europe can now, at last, play a decisive role in this matter which has for far too long come before the rights of the Palestinians the interests of the Israelis and the many lobbies which have no interest in resolving the age-old Palestinian question.
Let Europe therefore intervene with greater determination and take the appropriate steps to avoid the excessive amount of postponements, the deliberate hesitations and the intentional time-wasting giving rise to alarming extremist positions which – believe me, Madam President, ladies and gentlemen – will not help the Middle East question, Europe or the world as a whole.
The Palestinians are not asking for the whole of Jerusalem: they are asking for a symbolic part of a capital city which would be tangible, rather than merely verbal evidence of the rights of a people to a country of their own. I welcome the representatives of the parties in question, who are in this Chamber, and I will listen to what they have to say in a short while with great interest. I call upon Parliament to take up a strong, driving position which will greatly further peace in the Middle East."@en1
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