Opening plenary session of 2001-03-19

Opening plenary session of 2001-03-19
Time of motion of orders
European Parliament, Strasbourg
Intervention of Luisa Morgantini (GUE/NGL)

Mrs President,
Yesterday, I came back from Palestine and Gaza, where, on Saturday, I attended the plenary session of the Palestinian Legislative Council that was held for the first time for six months. This meeting took place under certain conditions: the Palestinians members could only enter Gaza in Israeli government cars and they were not allowed to use their own cars. They were searched and some of them were unable to attend due to the closure of the borders of the Palestinians territories.
During the night of the 7th Israeli soldiers hermetically closed 33 Palestinian villages (between Ramallah and Birzeit). They dug trenches, destroyed over 400 metres of the street and put tanks into position.
More then 65,000 people are blocked inside these villages.
These are actions that we cannot condone and we feel it is necessary to make our voices heard.
I ask the President to take action with Mr Solana in order to protest against the closure of the University of Birzeit. The students and teachers were not responsible for any shooting from Birzeit as they were only there to study.
I believe the situation is urgent and requires an immediate response. Israel must not be allowed to continue to violate the Geneva Convention and other International Conventions and to perpetuate these collective and inhuman punishments.
I refuse action of terrorism by single Palestinians or by organisations. However, there is no justification to collective punishments, they look to be a form of tribal revenge.
I ask the President to promote and support a protest to the Israeli government. Furthermore, I ask her to urge Mr Solana to intervene immediately to end the closure of the occupied territories, to put a stop to the collective punishment of the Palestinian population, to re-open Birzeit, it's university and villages and to restore the people's right to live and study.

Home | Index | Related Sites | Feed Back