Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-22-Speech-3-228"
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"en.20031022.9.3-228"2
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"Mr President, first of all, I wish to congratulate our colleague, Mr Menéndez del Valle on his excellent report, which has won broad consensus. His suggestions and recommendations are entirely to the point. If they were implemented immediately, they would bring instant peace to the long-suffering people of Israel and Palestine. We are all familiar with the obstacles to peace.
One amendment, which was rejected in committee, calls President Arafat an obstacle; I would have been tempted to vote in favour of that amendment if its author had treated Arafat and Sharon in the same way, and I would have given it my full support if it had stated that the Bush-Sharon relationship is currently making sure that the deadly status quo and the stagnation in the Middle East remain in place.
As a result of this stagnation, the two peoples are becoming a little more entrenched every day in this murderous folly and in poverty. Avraham Burg, the former Speaker of the Knesset whom we have received and applauded in this very House, accuses Mr Sharon of killing the Israeli nation by destroying its values. Today, he says, ‘we are a State that is building settlements under the leadership of a corrupt clique, which thumbs its nose at the wishes of the people and at the law’. Indeed, occupation, segregation, blockades, humiliation, targeted murders, houses being bulldozed and the wall are merely the visible signs of a deep-felt contempt and the failure to acknowledge a Palestinian national identity.
‘Even if 1 000 terrorists were killed every day, nothing would change’ continues Avraham Burg. Should we not, then, Mr President, start by ensuring that international law is respected? It is now being flouted quite openly and Israel will have to accept unilaterally to withdraw its army from the occupied territories and to dismantle illegal settlements. Accepting this would give the Palestinian people some political hope, would strengthen the power of its leaders and would enable them to wipe out extremism and terrorism.
There is certainly an alternative to Mr Sharon’s policy and this alternative is being advocated, in Israel, by members of the left and of civil society grouped around Yossi Beilin, Avraham Burg, Ami Ayalon and Amram Mitzna. We must hope that the European Union, unlike the United States, openly supports their initiative, which is the only thing capable of stopping the current process of demolition.
The Union will have a good opportunity to do so, on 4 November, when supporters of peace sign the Geneva Agreement. The fourth of November, I must remind you, is the anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Why should the President-in-Office of the Council not go to Tel-Aviv and to Ramallah with Mr Powell, with Kofi Annan and Mr Ivanov, returning only once the mission has been accomplished, in other words, once they have successfully ensured the irreversible and irrevocable implementation of the Road map? Go into the midst of activity and take this initiative in order to generate this shock, of which Messrs Poettering, Baron Crespo and Cohn-Bendit spoke here on 9 October, each in their own way.
The European Union, the United States, the United Nations and Russia each have the means of making both sides listen to reason. They have already used these means, moreover, and have a duty to use them now, before the entire Middle East is torn apart."@en1
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