Brussels, 05/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - A group of MEPs made up of the French President of the United Left group, Francis Wurtz, French Green Alima Boumediène-Thiry, French MEPs Alain Krivine and Roseline Vachetta (Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire) and Greek MEP Alexandros Alavanos (SYN) left Jerusalem on Friday morning to head for Ramallah to meet up with Claudio Fava MEP (Democratici di sinistra). This group will be taking over where the President of the EP delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council, Italian MEP Luisa Morgantini (PRC) left off - she returned to Brussels on Thursday to give an eye-witness report to the Conference of Presidents of the EP's political groups. David Harley, spokesperson for Pat Cox, the EP President, said her account had been very frank, with great humanity and intense feeling.
Luisa Morgantini relates typical events in the life of people in Ramallah
I simply recounted typical events in an ordinary day in Ramallah, a day that I will never be able to forget, said Luisa Morgantini, explaining what she had told the Committee. The day started with seeing the naked body of a young Palestinian who had been executed and left under a fig tree, then we saw old people left to fend for themselves without any water or food, she related, explaining that she had been joined by a group of peace activists at a medical centre. In the medical centre, she saw an Israeli army battalion of six tanks arrive with a group of soldiers, who began to demolish the entrance to the building opposite the medical centre. They made 20 men leave the building and publicly humiliated them in the street, then the tanks started firing on the building as a man threw himself out of a window on the third floor, explained the MEP. She went on to say that afterwards, the Israeli soldiers came to the medical centre, demanding that everyone leave before they destroyed the building. We, along with the doctor, tried to explain to them that there weren't any terrorists in the building. After a fierce discussion, they agreed to visit the building, including the cellars, but used civilians as human shields, thereby contravening international law. They were able to note that no Palestinians were hiding there but made us leave the centre all the same, dividing up the men and women and then destroyed the medical centre. Luisa Morgantini recounted the death of a young woman, killed for no reason, and explained that a communal grave had had to be set up opposite the hospital because the Israelis had banned funerals, a pregnant woman had been forced to give birth in the street because the ambulance was not allowed through the roadblocks and her newborn child had died. This total occupation and this cruelty are no way to fight terrorism, said Ms Morgantini, they can do nothing but create more terrorism, highlighting Israel's violations of human rights and international law. "It has to be stopped!", she stressed, calling for peace and justice and slamming the fact that the European Union was so weak. The EU doesn't have to ask permission from Sharon to go and visit Arafat. They should simply have gone to see him. The EU has the means to do so, she said, explaining that she was not calling for military intervention. Calling for a stepping up of pressure on the Israeli government, she called for sanctions to be introduced and for the EU/Israel Association Agreement to be suspended - the Agreement incorporates the clear option of being suspended when human rights and international law are flouted. At the Conference of Presidents meeting, the Vice-President of the EP delegation for relations with the Knesset, Cristina Gutierrez Cortines (EPP, Spain) also insisted that action had to be taken to put an end to the tragedy.
The debate at the Conference of Presidents ended in a debate followed by the adoption of a resolution being scheduled for next week's plenary. All political groups across the board are calling on the Israeli army to withdraw from Palestinian villages, but there are still disagreements on other initiatives. The Socialist group and GUE/NGL called for the Association Agreement to be suspended, but the Greens have not yet decided on their position. The EPP-ED and the Liberals do not favour suspension. The Liberals, however, want international observers to be sent and are calling for an embargo on arms supplies to Israel. GUE/NGL and the Greens/EFA have called for a European Parliament delegation to be sent, led by the President of the EP, but Pat Cox wants to wait for a better time, after the EP debate to get a better idea of the objectives of such a mission
On Friday morning, five MEPs were able to get to Ramallah, taking roundabout routes, at the same time as the US envoy Anthony Zinni was meeting Yasser Arafat. The day before
Mr Sharon had opposed a similar visit by Messrs Piqué and Solana and the President of the European Council, José Maria Aznar, had himself been turned away by Mr Sharon despite a telephone conversation lasting over one hour. "This should serve as a lesson to the European Union", which must draw conclusions not only concerning "the demand to become emancipated from the tutelage of the United States" and the Association Agreement, because of the violations of human rights, but also "because with such behaviour, we can no longer speak of association", declared Mr Wurtz. The aim of the mission was to "show our solidarity with the Palestinian people" and to "give evidence on our return", added Mr Wurtz, speaking from Jerusalem by phone. Painting a picture of Israel on the international scene he went on to add: "This Israeli military operation must have a high price, the highest, as soon as possible. It is only by isolating him that we shall be able to stop Sharon".