Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-07-Speech-3-152"
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"en.20050907.18.3-152"2
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"Mr President, should we or should we not see the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as an indication that there will be peace in the Middle East? I choose to believe this is the case even though I know that a glass half-full can be considered a glass half-empty. I therefore welcome this withdrawal from Gaza as symbolic of the fact that no settlement is a permanent fixture and that they can all be dismantled in the future. I also choose to believe that the wall, which the Israeli Authority has always declared temporary, will one day fall. I choose to believe that no extremist group will harm this fragile hope of peace with a terrorist attack and, above all, that no authority will take advantage of an isolated criminal act to carry out collective reprisals and ruin any hope of peace.
The withdrawal from Gaza has been difficult. The Israeli Government has carried it out with courage and determination and the Palestinian Authority with a great deal of maturity. Yet the glass is sadly also half-empty. Continued colonisation in the West Bank runs counter to the idea of long-lasting peace, in the same manner as the encirclement of East Jerusalem and the way in which Israel is gaining ground there. The potential isolation of Gaza, which is over-populated and cut off from any possible economic development, makes it a real ticking time bomb.
That is why I emphasise the need for Europe, while paying tribute to those who have secured this successful disengagement, not to be blind to these worrying signs and to continue to exert pressure so that Gaza has air and sea ports and access to the West Bank and to Egypt, thus preventing it from closing on its inhabitants like a trap, so that international law and humanitarian law are respected and regularly evaluated in this region and so that the road map is relaunched.
Europe has always condemned terrorism and violence and has instead favoured political negotiation and international law. Even if progress is slow, it is not a pointless exercise to tirelessly repeat what are our commitments in the Middle East."@en1
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