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Ramallah/Haifa,
21
January 2007
Re:
The EU must withdraw its support from the Second
European Commission-Israel Seminar on the fight
against racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism,
Jerusalem, 22-23, January
Dear
Ambassador or Representative,
Vice
President Franco Frattini of the EU Commission
is tomorrow opening the second European
Commission – Israel seminar in Jerusalem with
Minister Isaac Herzog. We understand that it is
organized by the EU Commission in conjunction
with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Yad Voshem under the framework of the EU
Neighbourhood policy.
For the
EU to be involved in such a meeting while Israel
assaults Gaza with weapons of war and tactics of
starvation is completely unacceptable. We are
calling for the immediate suspension of the
meeting.
You will
also no doubt recall that in 2002 the European
Parliament voted to suspend the EU Trade
Association agreement, invoking its human rights
clause, in protest at the massive assault on
Palestinians during the Israeli operations in
that year. What is currently happening in Gaza
are human rights violations comparable to those
carried out in 2002. Now, however, the
collective punishment is even wider in its scope
and even more blatant in its disregard for
international law and human rights.
On
Sunday evening, Gaza’s only power plant was shut
down, cutting electricity to the whole
population in the freezing winter. Bakeries have
stopped production. Water wells, hospitals and
sewage treatment facilities are shutting down.
UN food trucks, upon which 80% of Gaza’s
population depends, have been refused entry. 68%
of the population will be unable to meet their
basic needs. 35-40 types of medicines have run
out, 50-60 will be gone within a month. The
hospitals need 8000 of liters of fuel every day.
Without the fuel and electricity, they will be
unable to function. 600-700 people who urgently
need hospital treatment outside Gaza are trapped
in the area. 64 people have already died because
of lack of medicines. Life in Gaza is now no
longer possible. This is collective and holistic
punishment; it is a war crime.
For
Franco Frattini to meet with Isaac Herzog to
discuss ‘fighting racism’, ‘mutual
understanding’ and ‘combating hate speech’ under
these circumstances is incomprehensible.
Frattini said today:
“The
European Union has repeatedly condemned and
rejected all manifestations of racism,
xenophobia and anti-Semitism, regardless of
where they come from.”
The
complete denial of human rights, even the
humanity, of the people in Gaza by the Israeli
occupation is race-hatred in its most vicious
form. Where is condemnation of the EU now? Isaac
Herzog is not only minister for tourism, but
also member of the Israel security cabinet,
which declared Gaza a ‘hostile territory’. He is
therefore directly implicated the current
assault and must be called to account.
To meet
under these circumstances flies in the face of
the EU’s stated commitment to human rights and
its obligations to enforce the IV Geneva
Convention. Further, Israel is in clear
violation of the terms of the Association
Agreement under whose very auspices the meeting
has been arranged.
What is
going on in Gaza now is just the tip of the
iceberg: merely a part of Israel’s policy
towards the Palestinians over 60 years, from
massacres and forcible expulsion in 1948 to
population transfer and use of starvation as a
weapon in 2008.
Franco
Frattini must withdraw from the seminar and the
meeting must be suspended. For the EU to support
such a meeting at such a time makes their stated
commitments to human rights no more than words
on paper.
Yours
sincerely,
Jamal
Jumaa, General Director
Ameer Makhoul, General Director
Palestinian Grassroots Anti Ittijah
- Union of Arab Community Based
Apartheid Wall Campaign (Ramallah)
Organisations (Haifa) |
