1/2/2008
Gaza : MEPs paint a picture of despair

Many MEPs on Wednesday deplored the dire straits that drove Gazans to breach the wall around the Gaza strip, after an Israeli blockade lasting several weeks. The EU's alignment with US policy in the region was criticized by several MEPs in a plenary debate with EU foreign policy High Representative Javier Solana and external relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

"I believe that we face a very difficult situation, because in the Middle East, everything is linked. If we cannot progress towards a solution to the current problem in Gaza, then the peace process will be placed in difficulty" said Javier Solana.
 
Benita Ferrero-Waldner reiterated that she had expressed "cautious optimism" after the November 1997 Ananapolis conference, "knowing how difficult it would be to launch the bilateral negotiations between Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas" she said, adding that "we then had what I would call a very successful pledging conference in Paris, where we saw so much support that we thought there was now real new momentum". The Commissioner felt that the EU should now act as "facilitators", but not necessarily "mediators".
 
It was "despair" that drove the Gazans to breach the wall, said José Ignacio Salafranca (EPP-ED, ES). "Whereas, two years ago, we celebrating the holding of free elections in Palestine, we now see the Palestinian cause fragmenting", he said, on behalf of his group. Mr Salafranca also criticized Israel for taking advantage of this division "to continue settlements and impose a blockade". He stressed the necessity of  "backing the High Representative's efforts, supporting the Naples conference line through the Quartet and moderate Arab countries, and, above all, (…) and focusing Europe's action on preventing pointless human suffering (…), which has gone on too long in the Middle East".
 
"Eventually, every wall falls: the wall of Jericho, that of the Warsaw ghetto, the Berlin wall, the Atlantic wall, or the wall of indifference. The Rafah wall's symbolic weight makes it part of man's blind drive towards freedom", declared Véronique de Keyser (PES, BE). "Our responsibility, today, is historic. The question is no longer who will open the doors of this open-air prison, but who will dare close them, who will dare return the Gazans to their slow asphyxia. From the start of Annapolis, the European Union lost its grip. On the basis of the roadmap, it handed control of the peace process to the USA", she stressed.
 
"As a member of Parliament’s delegation to the Palestinian Legislative Council, I have been trying to work out why, when we call for an end to settlement building, the Israelis ignore us and we do nothing. Why, when we call for the removal of the checkpoints, the Israelis ignore us and we do nothing. Why, when we call to an end to the collective punishment of people in Gaza, the Israelis ignore us and we do nothing", said Chris Davies (ALDE, UK), who then went on to reveal that the reason why, supplied at the previous day's delegation meeting by EU Special Representative to the Middle East Marc Otte, was that "our policy - Europe's policy - is to follow the leadership given by America".
 
"The Palestinian people will believe in peace when peace brings them something" said Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Greens/EFA, DE). "Peace is not abstract. Peace is concrete. That is why we must say to Israel 'the blockade is something that makes life unbearable for Palestinians, and so endangers Israel's security'. That's the truth! And we need to say to Mr Bush: 'In any event, you will be gone within months. So be quiet, and leave policy making to others, who have grasped the situation better!'".

"The heroes of Gaza have proven once again that no fortified wall can imprison the free spirit of humanity and no form of violence can subdue life", said French MEP Francis Wurtz for the GUE/NGL group, quoting a statement made at the gates of Gaza the previous Saturday by Israeli peace campaigner and Sakharov prize winner Mrs Nurit Peled. Mr Wurtz stressed that "anyone can see the dual danger emerging on the side of the Israeli leadership. The first is the desire forcibly to close, or have closed, this narrow space of freedom. The second, more generally, is to pass off on to Egypt the responsibility of being the occupying power vis-à-vis Gaza".