Europe, Headlines, Human Rights, Middle East & North Africa

MIDEAST: Europe Could Help Make ‘Road Map’ a Reality

Alicia Fraerman

MADRID, May 19 2004 (IPS) - The positions stated by Israeli and Palestinian officials during a visit to Spain Tuesday and Wednesday indicate just how far both sides are from returning to the "road map", the peace plan that diplomats say requires European Union participation.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qormi, also known as Abu Ala, his foreign minister, Nabil Fhaat, and Israel’s Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom met separately with authorities from Spain and from the EU in Madrid, while the Palestinian city of Rafah was pummelled in the Israeli military’s Operation Rainbow. At least 10 Palestinians were killed and many more were wounded in clashes Wednesday.

The Palestinian and Israeli visitors met with Spain’s King Juan Carlos, Prime Minister Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, and the EU’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, also a Spaniard.

The EU is "a great force of hope" for the Middle East, said Abu Ala in reference to the role the bloc plays as a member of the "Quartet", along with the United States, Russia and United Nations, in promoting the peace plan for the region known as the road map.

Zapatero, in a joint press conference with the Palestinian prime minister and Solana, condemned the Israeli military attacks made Tuesday and Wednesday against the civilian population in Rafah, located in Gaza, along the Egyptian border. At least 34 people have been killed and hundreds of homes razed.

This is "a setback for peace," said Zapatero. He demanded a bilateral ceasefire and the implementation of the road map, which calls for an end to hostilities, the creation of a Palestinian state and the withdrawal of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

"That is what the Spanish government is demanding and what the international community wants," said the prime minister.

He underscored his government’s commitment to ensuring that the EU steps up its demands to achieve those goals.

Francisca Sauquillo, socialist Euro-parliamentarian and president of the Movement for Peace, Disarmament and Liberty, told IPS that pressure on the Israeli government must be intensified and protection of civilian Palestinians provided by an international force under United Nations command.

"Today it is more essential than ever to have a unanimous international declaration condemning the serious violations of human rights and international law perpetrated by the Israeli government," said the European lawmaker.

Abu Ala expressed support for that stance and told IPS that the Palestinian Authority backs the creation of an international force and the European proposal for an urgent meeting of the Quartet to push for peace.

Spain’s position is significant. It is the first time in many years that Madrid has stressed the need to respect the borders that were in place in the Middle East until 1967, when Israel occupied the Arab lands in the wake of the Six Day War.

Madrid assumes "a commitment to the road to peace, respect for U.N. resolutions on the matter, and the existence of the Palestinian state, the state of Israel and the 1967 borders," said Zapatero.

In the joint press conference, Abu Ala assured that his people would be "a serious partner" in advancing towards peace and arriving at a definitive solution to the conflict. "When Israel decides on a ceasefire it will find in us a reliable interlocutor." But Israel must stop attacking the Palestinians, he said.

"The crimes that are being committed against our people on a daily basis show that there is no desire for peace on the part of the Israeli government," Abu Ala said.

He also expressed doubts about the declared intentions of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of withdrawing from the Gaza Strip: "If you want to leave the Gaza Strip you don’t destroy Gaza, you don’t build a wall" or create zones of isolation."

The Israeli foreign minister, meanwhile, said the minimum conditions for dialogue on new proposals for peace do not exist, and justified the attacks on Rafah saying that the hundreds of homes destroyed were providing shelter to sharpshooters and terrorists and located at the mouths of tunnels used to smuggle in arms from Egypt.

Israel is building a wall in the occupied territories, said Shalom, and the only motive is to prevent Palestinian terrorists from committing crimes against the Israeli population.

Israel is not at war against the Palestinian people, he said, but rather "against Palestinian terror."

Shalom said the difference in the armed attacks by the two sides is that Palestinian terrorism in indiscriminate, while the acts of the Israeli government are intended to prevent terror and, where possible, prevent harm to the civilian population.

The EU should have Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Ala as its interlocutor, and not Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestinian authority, said the Israeli official.

Shalom stressed that they should not speak to, visit, telephone or continue encouraging Arafat.

The EU should take a more balanced position in the conflict, he said, because until it does the United States will continue to be the main promoter of the process.