Brussels, 03/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - On 2 December, the European Union condemned the suicide attacks that made many victims in Jerusalem on Saturday and Haifa on Sunday.
The Belgian Presidency of the EU Council adopted a declaration by which it "expresses its greatest revulsion and its firm condemnation of the terrorist attacks perpetrated in Jerusalem and Haifa. It offers its most sincere condolences to the families of the victims and to the Israeli Government. The Presidency refers to the declaration of 13 August, in which the EU totally rejects terrorist acts, particularly those acts which are targeted at innocent civilians (see EUROPE of 15 August, p.2). "The Presidency calls upon the Palestinian Authority to do everything in its power to arrest and bring to justice the perpetrators of these awful acts and to prevent that such acts be repeated. It encourages the parties to work without delay and resolutely towards the resumption of an effective security co-operation with a view to breaking the cycle of violence. The Presidency affirms the firm intention of the international community not to allow that extremism and terrorism destroy the current diplomatic efforts aiming to re-launch the political process in the middle Eat".
The High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana spoke along the same lines, calling on the Palestinian Authority to "do its utmost to prevent further such actions and to work for effective security co-operation", and stressing that the Israelis and Palestinians "should not yield to pressure from enemies of peace nor from those who want to sabotage the efforts towards this end". In addition, Mr. Solana said that he considered the declaration of the Palestinian state of emergency as "a first step in the right direction".
European Commission President, Romano Prodi sent a telegram to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in which he expresses the European Commission's "firm condemnation" of these attacks, affirming "its full rejection of any act of terrorism and underlines the urgency of resuming the dialogue in view of restoring peace".
Back from a trip to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, the leader of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left in the European Parliament, Francis Wurtz, said he was "horrified at such deliberately cruel and murderous acts"", while adding: "should the government decide to "avenge" the victims of these attacks, we shall see ever reduce (…) the margin of manoeuvre of the Palestinian Authority to try to break the dramatic vicious circle (…) in which the conflict has been stuck since the election of Ariel Sharon". Palestinians and Israelis have all to lose from such a "bloody and irresponable drive forward", said Wurtz, wondering: "Is not Israel's interest to provide its only possible Palestinian interlocutor (Yasser Arafat) with the real means to contribute to stemming this desperate cycle of violence?". And, considering that this meant "an end to military operations and targeted assassination in Gaza and the West Bank and an end to all new construction or extension of settlements, the end to the economic and financial asphyxia of the Palestinian Territories", he observed that in Israel "lucid and courageous voices are rising, in society as in the Knesset, in favour of a return to the search for a peaceful outcome to the crisis".