[Individual-members-EL] THE SIEGE HAS BEEN BROKEN: MEPs IN THE GAZA STRIP IN SOLIDARITY WITH CIVIL POPULATION

[European Left]

INFO PRESS

 

 

THE SIEGE HAS BEEN BROKEN:

MEPs IN GAZA STRIP IN SOLIDARITY WITH CIVIL POPULATION

 

Jerusalem, 7th February 2008 

 

A delegation composed of 10 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from
different political groups (see the list of participants below) and led by
Luisa Morgantini, Vice-President of the European Parliament, broke the
Israeli siege and travelled to the Gaza Strip on 5th February 2008. 

During a press conference, MEPs reaffirmed the need and the urgency to lift
the blockade that represents "an illegal collective punishment on the civil
population". 

Visiting the Al-Shifa Hospital, the delegation expressed its deep concern
and worry about the extreme difficulties under which the main hospital in
the Gaza Strip is obliged to operate, where patients with cancer, but not
only with cancer, do not avail of the necessary medical drugs or treatments
and at least 30 premature babies, still alive thanks to incubators, risk
dying if generators stop because of the lack of fuel due to cuts in
refuelling supplies and to the closure decided by the Israeli Government.


In its mission to Gaza, the delegation also met many Palestinian businessmen
who reaffirmed the impossibility for them to carry out their commercial
activities because of the Israeli blockade, with disastrous consequences for
the economy and the daily life of civilians: 80% of workers are currently
unemployed without any compensation.    

Refusing the idea of resorting to smuggling, currently the only channel open
to access and trade goods in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian businessmen have on
the contrary reiterated to MEPs their will and their right to free and
honest trade. Palestinian businessmen also repeated that the siege does not
affect Hamas' political and religious movement but that, on the contrary,
the heaviest price is being paid by the civil population, as many
Palestinian intellectuals and activists have been claiming for a long time
and as they also claimed  in a meeting with the MEPs in the offices of the
"End the Siege" campaign (www.end-gaza-siege.ps;
<mailto:end.gaza.siege at gmail.com> end.gaza.siege at gmail.com), with the
participation, among others, of the doctor and human rights activist, Eyad
Sarraj, one of the promoters of the demonstration for the International Day
for the End of Gaza siege, on 26th January, held simultaneously in the Gaza
Strip, at the Eretz Crossing, by Israeli peace activists, and all around the
world.    

The different organizations supporting the Campaign, but also many women
from Gaza, meeting the delegation, reaffirmed the need for independence,
freedom and peace for Palestinians,  appealed for the lifting of the
blockade and also for the right to security for all civilians, both Israelis
and Palestinians. They restated at the same time that "Qassam rockets are
fired not by the people of Gaza, but only by some groups of extremist
Palestinians, and this must be condemned as well as all the bloodshed of
civilians due to Israeli raids perpetuated by the army of occupation". 

In the press conference, broadcast by major Arab television channels, the
MEPs, expressing their solidarity, declared they were "deeply impressed by
the dignity and the resistance of the Palestinian people and wished that
Palestinian political parties could find unity so that the Gaza Strip and
the West Bank would not be separated."  

MEPs also urged an intervention to put a stop to the ecological disaster in
Beitlaya area; that the Rafah border and all Gaza crossings be opened
thereby allowing free movement of people and goods; that the violent spiral
of action-reaction be immediately stopped. They also called for concrete
deeds for the resumption of peace negotiations based on the freezing of all
illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, the end
to the military occupation and for the establishment of a free and sovereign
Palestinian State based on the '67 borders in coexistence with the Israeli
State. 

The delegation also urged effective action by the International Community to
secure the freedom of all political prisoners and Palestinian
Parliamentarians who have been arrested, to improve living conditions in all
the Occupied Palestinian Territory and, in particular, in the Gaza Strip, to
encourage Israel to show a concrete will for peace, that has not existed up
until now and that is denied every day through the raids, check points,
roadblocks, the wall and closures not only in Gaza but in the entire West
Bank, such as in Hebron - which the MEPs visited on 4th February - a ghost
town, occupied by hundreds of Israeli soldiers defending 400 fanatic
settlers.  

During the fact-finding mission, from 2nd - 7th February, the Members of the
European Parliament with 8 officials, assistants and some journalists also
visited the town of Sderot, in Israel, under daily attack by Qassam rockets,
as a sign of solidarity with the civil population, where they met, among
others, Zvi Shuldiner, director of a Department of Safir College and peace
activist.  

The delegation also met the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the
Minister in charge of Prisoners' Affairs, Ashraf al- Ajami, Members of the
Palestinian Legislative Council of different political parties - Fatah, Al
Mubadarah, Third Way, Peoples' Party, Popular Front, Independents and Change
and Reform List (Hamas), some Members of the Knesset- Kadima Party and
Labour Party,  General Pietro Pistoiese, Head of the EUBAM mission, EU and
UNRWA Representatives, but also peace and human rights organizations from
Israeli and Palestinian civil societies.

 

For all information, a statement or report please contact:

 

Luisa Morgantini +972 547271742 (Palestinian mobile) or 0039 348 39 21 465
(Italian mobile)

 

luisa.morgantini at europarl.europa.eu;  <http://www.luisamorgantini.net/>
www.luisamorgantini.net

 

 

 

List of  MEPs participants

 



surname + name

group

country


EVANS Jill

Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance

UK


FALBR Richard

Socialist Group in the European Parliament

Czech Republic


HEGYI Gyula

Socialist Group in the European Parliament 

Hungary


HOWITT Richard

Socialist Group in the European Parliament

UK


KOTEREC Miloš

socialist Group in the European Parliament

Slovakia


LAMBERT Jean

Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance

UK


 MADEIRA E MADEIRA Jamila Barbara

Socialist Group in the European Parliament

Portugal


MALDEIKIS Eugenijus

Union for Europe of the Nations Group 

Lithuania 


MORGANTINI Luisa

Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left 

Italy


MORILLON Philippe

Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe

 

France


NOGUEIRA ROMÁN Camilo

Former MEP GREENS

Spain


ZELEZNY Vladimir

Independence/ Democracy Group

Czech Republic

 

 

 

GUE/NGL Press
Gianfranco Battistini +32 475 64 66 28
Gay Kavanagh +32  473 842 320
 <http://www.guengl.eu/>  
 

 

 

 

 

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