Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-22-Speech-2-163"
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"en.20021022.7.2-163"2
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". – I am grateful to the honourable Member for what he said initially. Who would not be? He knows that I am a man of legendary generosity of spirit, so perhaps I just have to take it as a fact of political life that however much you tell some people the truth, they prefer to ignore it. It would be helpful if some of those who keep making these accusations would sometimes turn up in the Chamber or at the committee meetings where I have been refuting the allegations. It might also help if they would occasionally read the newspapers and see what is being said and done about the reform of the Palestinian Authority. But I suspect that one or two of them have their own games to play, games that owe very little to fact but a good deal to prejudice and malevolent whimsy.
Secondly, with regard to the impact on conditions on the ground, the situation on the ground – and this is not easy to dispute – is appalling. We have recently had the report by the UN Secretary-General's special envoy, Catherine Bertini, followed up by a further study. The private remarks of the British Ambassador in Tel Aviv have been reported in the Israeli media. I do not believe for one moment that impoverishment, degradation or hunger – all of which have existed in some form in Palestine – are conducive to Israel's long-term security. Are you more or less likely to encourage lack of moderation or extremism in the conditions that exist in the West Bank and Gaza?
I hope that the points that Mr Pérez made to us during the EU-Israel Association Council yesterday about the humanitarian situation on the ground will lead to some improvement. I hope that the increase in our assistance to UNWRA will help improve the situation and I hope that the Israeli Government will listen to some of the things we are saying, for instance about the blocking of 500 containers of World Food Programme assistance in Ashdod Port at the moment. What does that have to do with the security of Israel?
So, I totally sympathise with the argument that Israel should have assurances about its security, but I do not think that making life intolerable for Palestinians is the right way of achieving that."@en1
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