EU leaders endorse plan to resume aid to Palestinians
There has been a general thawing in the EU from our disgraceful decision to withdraw funding from the Palestinian Authority because the Palestinians had the temerity to vote for leaders that we disapprove of.
The EU have now decided to channel aid payments to cash-starved Palestinians focusing on health, social services and utilities such as heating and sanitation, while maintaining a funding freeze on the Hamas-led government.
It seems finally to have occurred to Europe that the sight of Palestinians starving for the crime of voting for the wrong party might not go down well with their respective electorates.
However, they have also made some useful statements regarding Israel's construction of the wall and Olmert's plans to make unilateral decisions on the borders.
The EU urged Israel to resume the transfer of more than $50 million in monthly tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians.Whenever I hear Europe talking sense and insisting that Israel must follow international law regarding the Occupied Territories - as opposed to the almost Likud position usually adopted by the Bush administration - I am reminded of why Donald Rumsfeld's supposed insult is actually a great compliment.
Those funds are "essential in averting a crisis in the Palestinian territories," the draft EU statement said.
Israel blocked those funds after the Hamas election victory. The EU, the U.S. and other donors also froze hundreds of millions of dollars (euros) in direct aid to the Palestinian government after the win by Hamas, which the EU and U.S. have branded as a terrorist organization.
The aid freeze has meant some 165,000 government employees, including teachers, health workers and security personnel, have not been paid in three months. In its statement, the EU urged other donors, including Arab states, to "consider early and substantial contributions."
The EU draft statement urged Israel to resume peace talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas - whose Fatah movement is Hamas' main political rival. It urged Abbas to disarm violent groups and halt attacks on Israel.
In a message to the Israelis, the EU condemned violence against Palestinian civilians and urged a halt to "any action that threatens the viability of an agreed two-state solution and from acts that are contrary to international law." The statement referred in particular to the construction of Israel's West Bank security barrier and Jewish settlements in the area.
Referring to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's determination to draw Israel's final borders by 2010 - with or without an agreement with the Palestinians - the EU insisted it "will not recognize any change to the pre-1967 border other than those agreed by both sides."
I am very happy to be an old European.
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2 comments:
Hopefully others will follow suit..the Palestinian people have been bearing the brunt for so many years..it's ridiculous...
when will this all stop?
Ingrid
I agree Ingrid.
The treatment meted out to the Palestinians is simply shameful.
And that the US, a country who claim to have this deep seated love of freedom, find themselves on the side of the occupiers is simply shameful.
I've also been reading that the US is exerting pressure on any country attempting to get aid to the Palestinians and threatening to punish those that do.
Thankfully, the EU is too large and the US is too dependent on our imports for them to be able to threaten us in this way.
If the American in the street had any idea of how this conflict is perceived in the rest of the world they would quickly reconsider how much truth they have actually been told about the history of this region.
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