Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-22-Speech-2-244"
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"en.20070522.25.2-244"2
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".
Madam President, the President-in-Office said that the new unity government in Palestine had not quite passed the litmus test. Well, the Israelis have not quite stopped building their security wall, stealing Palestinian land and water. The Israelis have not quite released the 10 000 prisoners, many of them held without charge or trial. The Israelis have not quite stopped holding checkpoints – 589 according to the Commission’s latest figures – which impose an economic embargo upon the Palestinians. The Israelis have not quite paid back the money – which may amount to about one thousand million euros now – that they have withheld from the Palestinians’ own revenue over the past year. They have not quite stopped the partition and separation by way of identity cards, which my own party leader, Paddy Ashdown – our former representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina – described just last Saturday as racism dressed up as administration.
I say these things to the President-in-Office because we are seen as a European Union that practises double standards: we are seen to ignore every Israeli illegality, but to expect Palestinians to behave like saints. When the Commissioner says that we are using all the instruments at our disposal to get the Israelis to observe international agreements and obey the law, I do not think that can possibly be the case. There are many tools at our disposal that we are not even trying to exercise.
Therefore, what does the Palestinian unity government have to do now? Just two weeks ago our delegation heard Prime Minister Haniyeh not only convince us in a way that satisfied us all that the unity government was determined to meet the Quartet’s three principles, and believed it was doing so, but also that it would meet with members of the Quartet without reservation or precondition at any time to try to sort out these differences. I urge the President-in-Office to take up that offer.
Note also the comments just yesterday of the Norwegian Foreign Minister when he asked what would happen if we do not support this government. There would be only chaos and crisis if we do not give it our support.
Therefore, President-in-Office, the good news in your speech is that you are seeking an urgent meeting to review the situation yet again. That is a positive step forward. All I can say is that we have often accused the Palestinians of missing opportunities; we have often accused the Israelis of missing opportunities. This is an opportunity that we ourselves must not miss."@en1
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