Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-01-19-Speech-3-108"
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"en.20000119.5.3-108"2
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"Mr President, it is pleasing that, despite certain delays and problems, the peace negotiations are going on both between Israel and Palestine and between Israel and Syria. The moment of truth is approaching. Is Israel prepared to comply with the UN’s resolutions and, in exchange for peace and security, hand back the Arab areas which were conquered in 1967? Will Israel let Palestinian refugees return or be given compensation? Will Israel share Jerusalem and the water of the River Jordan? Will a free Palestine be a truly democratic state and, therefore, reliable as a partner in peace? Will Syria fully accept Israel’s existence and introduce democracy and the rule of law?
The fact that the main responsibility for the peace process lies with the occupying country, Israel, does not prevent the Arab partners from also having a considerable share of the responsibility. Peace in the Middle East concerns us all, however. It is therefore good that the EU should act as a godparent to the Palestinian state.
Against this background, I want to conclude with a remarkable story from Sweden where an international Intergovernmental Conference on Hitler’s extermination of the Jews is being held, which is obviously a welcome initiative. Of 47 states invited from all corners of the world, not one of them, however, is an Arab state included in the EU’s Barcelona process. This has been interpreted as indicating that the Arab attitude towards Israel should be regarded by Europeans as being similar to the Nazis’ anti-Semitism, which of course is completely incorrect. The Arab world’s criticism of Israel has been founded upon the same sort of anti-colonialism as, for example, Algeria’s fight for freedom against France. But today, Egypt, Jordan and Palestine have peace treaties with Israel. I therefore wonder whether Commissioner Patten does not agree with me that it would have been only right and proper to have invited at least one Arab state to the holocaust conference in Stockholm."@en1
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