Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-09-27-Speech-2-565-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20110927.30.2-565-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Baroness Ashton, allow me to return to what happened at the General Assembly in New York. You only touched briefly on these matters and I would simply like to tell you today that my group supports President Abbas’s legitimate request to the United Nations (UN). It is a very simple statement.
Having said that, I have more or less said everything. We also regret that it has taken so long for this request to be made to the UN and we hope that Europe will finally succeed in speaking clearly and with one voice on this difficult subject.
Lady Ashton, you should not suppose that the simple phrase ‘We support President Abbas’s request’ met with instant acceptance within the political groups. There were fears of a misunderstanding with Israel, whose security has always been a must for us. Fears, too, that the Palestinian initiative might fail in the Security Council, potentially resulting in an outbreak of street violence in the Arab countries and perhaps economic sanctions against the Palestinian Authority, or pressure from the United States. All of which made this a difficult decision.
Yet what eventually carried the day was a kind of honesty and political courage on the part of MEPs. Yes, the Palestinians are entitled to membership. Sixty-three years after the same General Assembly recognised the State of Israel, 12 years after the Berlin Declaration promised to recognise the Palestinian state in due course, the time has come. The time has come to support those in Palestine who have opted for peace, negotiation and the creation of viable institutions. The time has come because Palestine is being whittled away. It is no longer the Palestine defined in 1947, nor in the Oslo Accords in 1993. It has even changed in the last few years. The Israeli Government’s policy of presenting
with settlements, the usurpation of agricultural land, the wall – all of this is consuming Palestine from within. There is no time to waste.
This very day, the Israeli Government has decided to build 1 100 housing units in Gilo, which will soon render a two-state solution impossible. The time has come. The Arab Spring has given rise to so much hope that it would be unthinkable for Europe to tell the Palestinians: ‘This spring is not for you. Hold on. In due time, as it says in the Berlin Declaration, your time will come’. Palestinians are dying today having never known anything but occupation. For all these reasons, the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament is today unreservedly supporting Mahmoud Abbas’s request to the UN. Let their courage – some have lived through troubled times – let their courage inspire you, Baroness Ashton, when you defend our position to the European governments.
There are times when European values and commitments have to take precedence."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples