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The European Union Shall Tell The Truth!
The decision taken on 12th December in Brussels by the EU's 25
Foreign Ministers to not publish a draft report that is highly
critical of Israel's activity in East Jerusalem, with particular
regard to the separation wall and "illegal settlement" activity,
provides objective help to Palestinian extremist forces and to the
Israeli policy of annexation of territories.
In his official statement on the decision, UK Foreign Minister Jack
Straw referred to the "changed circumstances in Israel and the
Occupied Territories," and also said that "publishing the report now
was inappropriate because the EU does not want to get embroiled in
domestic Israeli politics in the run-up to elections." This is not a
good reason to hide the draft report, written by the Jerusalem, Tel
Aviv, and Ramallah missions of the 25 EU members and scheduled to be
discussed at the European Summit in Brussels on 15 and 16 December.
The document criticizes Israel for demolishing Palestinian homes in
east Jerusalem, reducing work permits for Palestinians and imposing
a system of "discriminatory taxation". It calls Israeli activity in
east Jerusalem a "violation of both the Road Map obligations and
international law" and refers to the areas of Ramot, French Hill,
East Talpiot, Gilo, Pisgat Ze'ev and Har Homa as "illegal
settlements". It also underlines that the security barrier is being
built in defiance of the 2004 ruling of the International Court of
Justice against the fence. As stated in the report, Israel's actions
in East Jerusalem "demonstrate a clear Israeli intention to turn the
annexation of east Jerusalem into a concrete fact."
These activities "reduce the possibility of reaching a final status
agreement on Jerusalem, threaten to make any solution based on the
co-existence of two viable states physically impossible and are
contrary to international law".
There is no doubt that the withdrawal from Gaza is a positive
development, even though it was a unilateral act by the Sharon
Government; nor is there any doubt that the European role following
the withdrawal from Gaza, including the European presence at the
Rafah border, is very important. However, we must remember that Gaza
is not the whole of Palestine, but only a small part of the
territories occupied in 1967. We cannot echo Solana's words, when he
affirms that " this report is one-sided", because this report stands
on the side of the FACTS, which the European Union wants to hide.
We must stand firm - excercising the necessary diplomacy, of course
- but if European Union stands by its annual report on human rights
in which it called on Israel "to ease the closures, freeze all
settlement expansion and halt the construction of the barrier inside
the occupied Palestinian Territory", then we cannot be satisfied
with our presence in Rafah; we can't be indifferent now and we
cannot delay acting until after the Israeli elections, when there
will be a smaller Territory available for a Palestinian State to
coexist with an Israeli State.
Supporting Palestinian President Mahomoud Abbas in his fight for
democracy, peace and for the end of all violence means stopping
Israeli military incursions into Palestinian villages and towns,
ending strategic killings, indiscriminate arrests, the expansion of
settlements, and carrying on with the negotiating process, in spite
of extremist forces. I hope that the European Union can use all its
diplomatic power for peace, to create two peoples and two States
with Jerusalem as shared Capital.
I ask to everybody who wants a just and sustainable peace and an end
to all violence and terrorism, from all sides, to ask the European
Union not to hide the truth.
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