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;
end.gaza.siege@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 in
Rafah, 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)
o 0039 06 69 95 02 17 (Rome
Office)
luisa.morgantini@europarl.europa.eu;
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 Miloڑ |
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 ROMءN Camilo |
Former MEP GREENS |
Spain |
|
ZELEZNY Vladimir |
Independence/ Democracy Group |
Czech Republic |
