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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
— December 2009 - January 2010
Gaza
been established deep
inside the West Bank, with the clear intention of
making it impossible for a viable Palestinian state
to exist. I have visited the West Bank, Gaza, and
Jerusalem on many occasions in the past ten years
and each time it is more obvious than ever that
Israel will never willingly negotiate a Palestinian
state on the borders.
Between the
th
and the
th
December, I led
an official visit to the West Bank, Jerusalem and
Gaza by a cross-party group of Members of the
European Parliament (EP) from Cyprus, France,
Germany, Greece, Italy and the UK, represent-
ing the EP’s Delegation for Relations with the
Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).
One of the first briefings we received during
the visit was from the Palestinian Negotiations
Support Team. The young man from the team
explained that negotiating with Israel about a
future Palestinian state was like negotiating with
them about sharing a pizza. Israel, despite prior
agreement, continues to eat the pizza while going
through the motions of negotiating.
The evidence is there for all to see. The occupa-
tion of the West Bank and East Jerusalem continues
and is now into its
nd
year. Palestinians have had
sixteen fruitless years of the Oslo peace process,
which was to bring about an end to the occupation
and to establish a viable Palestinian state within
years. Having agreed to stop all settler colo-
nies in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza, settle-
ment has in fact accelerated. In round figures there
are now , illegal colonists in the occupied
Palestinian territory - over , in the West
Bank and almost , in East Jerusalem. In
most cases the settler colonies are large towns
with populations running into tens of thousands.
Most of these colonies were begun by fundamen-
talist Jews who believe the entire land of Palestine
should be the sovereign territory of a Jewish state
from which Palestinians have been cleared. The
Israeli government, however, provides financial
incentives to non-religious as well as religious
Israelis to settle in Palestinian territory in a relent-
less process of displacing and dispossessing the
local Palestinian population. They also provide
services such as electricity and water, and security
via the Israeli Defence Forces. Israel has also built
a network of roads between the colony towns lead-
ing into Israeli territory proper. Palestinians are
not allowed to travel on these roads.
It is instructive to look at a map of the settle-
ments. They are not, as many imagine, along the
border between Israel and the West bank. The
settlements have been established deep inside
the West Bank, with the clear intention of making
1967-
Proinsias De Rossa has just returned from leading a European
Parliament delegation whose permission to enter Gaza was
revoked by Israel
p r o i n s i a s d e r o s s a
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES
Sunset, Palestine
it impossible for a viable Palestinian state to exist.
I have described it on a previous occasion as look-
ing like a Swiss cheese, with the Palestinians con-
fined to the holes.
Another briefing we received was on behalf of
the Quartet Team, led by Tony Blair, the former
UK Prime Minister. All of us were gobsmacked
when in response to our criticism that Blair did
not seem to be making any effort on the political
front we were informed that he does not in fact
have a political mandate. His role is to assist in
negotiating an easing of the Israeli clampdown on
the occupied areas so that Palestinians may live
normal lives, develop their social and economic
infrastructure, travel to work and school more
freely etc. In this he has made some progress.
The number of roadblocks in the West Bank has
been reduced by , down from to .
However, a senior member of the Palestine
Legislative Council told me that in some cases
they have been replaced with mobile roadblocks
negating some of that progress.
We also met with Dr Aziz Dweik, the Speaker
of the PLC, who is a member of Hamas, and has
only been recently released from four years deten-
tion for membership of Hamas. Forty other mem-
bers of the PLC are still in jail. Due to the tensions
between Hamas and Fateh we could not meet him
in Ramallah, but did meet him in his hometown
of Hebron. We pressed him hard on the need for
reconciliation so that Palestinians could have a
united negotiating position in this critical period.
He made it clear that as far as he was concerned
they wanted it but needed changes to the Egyptian
proposal for unity between the political factions.
The objections he outlined were not to my mind
insuperable and my conclusion is that Hamas is
holding back from agreement for reasons to do
with seeking political advantage.
Hebron itself is a powder keg. With a pop-
ulation of ., there are Israeli col-
onists ensconced in the centre of the old town,
‘protected’ by , Israeli soldiers. They have
taken over half of the ancient Mosque as a syna-
gogue and turned the area into a ghost town by
banning Palestinians from walking on the street
on which they live. The colonists here are said to
be the most violent in any part of the West Bank.
I was told of an incident from the previous week,
where a settler knocked down a Palestinian cross-
ing the road and repeatedly drove his vehicle back
and forward over the body, while the Israeli army
stood by and watched.
The dispossession of Palestinians is also under-
way in East Jerusalem which has also been occu-
pied by Israel since and is now claimed by
them as part of Israel. We met three families who
the previous week had been evicted from their
homes and are living in tents outside their homes,
which are now occupied by Jewish Israelis.
The Delegation was also to visit Gaza. Our
mission there was threefold. Firstly, to check on
the humanitarian conditions under which the
people of Gaza are living in view of the continued
restrictions being implemented by Israel. During
the visit we were due to have a meeting with John
Ging of UNWRA. Secondly, to urge the PLC mem-
bers we were due to meet that reconciliation with
their colleague elected members in the West Bank
was essential to make progress on the establish-
ment of a viable Palestinian state based on the
borders. And thirdly, to check on the effec-
tiveness of EU expenditure in the area. This mis-
sion was clearly as much in Israel’s interests as it
was in the interests of the Palestinian people.
Regrettably, the permission we had received
from the Israeli authorities to enter Gaza was
rescinded, for ‘security reasons’ they said, just a few
hours after it had finally been confirmed. Yet the
Representative of the Dutch government was per-
mitted to travel into Gaza on the day that we were
banned. Being denied access to Gaza certainly
does not improve the relationship between this
Israeli government and the European Parliament.
Israel’s denying elected members of the European
Parliament the opportunity to meet our democrat-
ically-elected counterparts on the PLC is an unac-
ceptable interference in the democratic process,
and is contrary to international law.
Coincidentally, the cancellation of our per-
mission came within hours of the EU Council of
Ministers’ decision to re-affirm the policy of the
EU in favour of a Palestinian State based on the
Borders, with Jerusalem as the capital. The
EU statement also called for a stop to all settle-
ments and indicated Europe’s readiness, when
appropriate, to recognise a Palestinian state.
This was sigificant. Israel had fought hard but
failed to have this commitment deleted from the
statement, as they believe it implies recognising a
unilaterally-declared Palestinian state. The other
important element in the statement was a com-
mitment by Europe to support the implemen-
tation of the Palestinian Authority’s document
‘Palestine, Ending the Occupation, Establishing
the State’, which aims to have the institutions for
a Palestinian State in place by the end of .
The EU statement now puts it up to Israel
to engage in negotiations, or see a Palestinian
state established and recognised by Europe,
and perhaps by the UN. If Israel then failed to
withdraw its armed forces
and settlers, they would be
in direct conflict with the
international community.
This would create a whole
new dynamic and remove
the initiative from Israel.
The EU statement,
which was emphatically wel-
comed by Salem Fayyed, the
Palestinian Prime Minister,
during an hour-long meet-
ing we had with him, has
created a glimmer of hope
in a desperate situation. The question for the EU,
its Member States, and for all those that want to
see a two-state solution, is what practical steps
can now be taken to further this agenda?
There are a number of pressure points that
the incoming Spanish Presidency of the European
Council should exploit: Firstly, use the review of
the European Neighbourhood Policy and of its
Action Plans to address Israel’s non-compliance
with human rights norms. Secondly, seek the
strict labelling of imports from Israel to ensure
that products from the settlement colonies are
clearly identified as such so that decisions can be
made by Member States and consumers about
whether they wish to accept such products.
Finally, it is essential we insist that the EU’s new
High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Baroness
Ashdon, draw up an action plan, with a two year
timetable, to coincide with the Palestinian
Authority’s timetable for state building, for the
implementation of the Council’s statement of
principles. We have to ensure that Europe, and
not just the Quartet of the EU, US,, Russia, and
the UN, pursues a reinvigorated engagement in
seeking justice for the Palestinian people.
Proinsias De Rossa MEP is President of the EP’s Delegation
for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council, and
leader of the Labour Party group of MEPs in the European
Parliament
“Being denied access to Gaza
certainly does not improve
the relationship between this
Israeli government and the
European Parliament”
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