Brussels, 02/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - The Euromed Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA) political committee, which met on 1 July in Brussels, has adopted a declaration condemning the Israeli attack against the “peace flotilla” seeking to force its way through the Gaza embargo. The incident occurred one month ago (31 May) and is strongly condemned by the committee, which sees this as infringement of international law, vehemently deploring the loss of life. One minute of silence was observed by all present in memory of the victims. Only the Israeli deputy, Majali Whbee, a Druze member of the Kadima party, remained passive. He then regretted the attitude of his colleagues, acknowledging their right to criticise a country belonging to the Assembly but calling on them to show impartiality. He cited the case of Turkey whose law enforcement forces recently killed 37 Kurds, and took the view that the international commissions of inquiry should be foreseen in all cases and not just against Israel. In its statement, the parliamentary committee calls for a “prompt, impartial, international and transparent inquiry, (…) in order to shed light on the events and identify responsibilities”. It calls for the blockade to be lifted “lifted swiftly, completely and sustainably” and in conditions that effectively ensure the security of the population.
In addition to this aspect, the committee members were mainly concerned about an internal problem, namely that, during a meeting of the Bureau on 18 June, the EMPA president prevented adoption of this same declaration, refusing to accept the fact that mention was made of an international inquiry. The problem, in fact, was not so much about international policy as it would seem but more to do with the “two-headed” way in which the Italian EMPA presidency works, i.e. in common with the presidents of both Houses of the Italian national parliament, none of whom were in Brussels on Thursday. Given this event without precedent in the annals of the Assembly, the chairmen of the three committees (political, economic and cultural) and of the EMPA agreed to continue to consult each other in order to prevent such an “unprecedented event” ever happening again. The political committee calls on the other two committees to take the declaration into account so as to send the members of the Bureau a clear “political message”. (F.B./transl.jl)