Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority wrote a letter to leaders of the EU concerning the upgrade of the relations between EU and Israel
The following letter by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad
concerning the upgrade of the relations between EU and Israel was sent to all
the Prime Ministers of the Member States of the European Union, to the EU High
Representative Javier Solana, to José Manuel Barroso, President of the European
Commission, to the Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero Waldner,
and to Hans-Gert Pöttering President of the European Parliament.
Your Excellency,
It has come to my attention that the European Union is
contemplating upgrading its relationship with Israel, including in the
political and economic spheres, and that the Council may take a decision on
this matter in its June 16th meeting.
I am writing you to register my deep reservations concerning such an upgrade
while Israel continues to systematically violate Palestinian human rights and
flaunt its international obligations, including certain of its commitments to
the EU.
Our understanding is that one of the principal rationales for the EU to extend
political and economic co-operation to neighboring third states under the
European Neighborhood Policy is to generate incentives for those third states
to respect EU values, central among them human rights, democracy and the rule
of law. Yet, what we fear may happen in the case of Israel is a decoupling of
the incentive (i.e., economic integration) from the desired behavior (i.e.,
respect for human rights).
In the months since Annapolis, we have continued to see a flagrant disregard on
the part of Israel for Palestinian national and individual rights, in violation
of international law and the Road Map. Construction has continued in at least
101 settlements (not incl. Jerusalem-area settlements). Similarly, Israeli
authorities have issued tenders for 847 new housing units since Annapolis, as
compared with 138 housing units tendered in the 11 months prior to Annapolis.
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities demolished at least 185 Palestinian structures,
including 85 residential structures, in the first four months after Annapolis.
The number of checkpoints, roadblocks and other physical barriers to movement
now exceeds 600. And, of course, Israel has yet to comply with the 2004 ruling
of the International Court of Justice, which held that the settlements and the
Wall that are built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) are illegal,
and which requires Israel to stop constructing the Wall, remove those parts
already built and provide reparations.
All this aside, despite its obligations under the Barcelona Process, Israel
continues, through a myriad of restrictions, to hamper implementation of the
Interim Association Agreement concluded between the EU and the PLO on behalf of
the PNA. Moreover, Israel continues to breach its own Association Agreement and
EU directives regarding settlement products by allowing these products to be
exported to the EU as if they were manufactured and/or wholly obtained in
Israel and to refund settlement businesses (through illegal subsidies) for any
import taxes paid by these businesses in their export to the EU.
At Annapolis, we agreed, in accordance with the Road Map, that the United
States, on behalf of the Quartet, would head a trilateral mechanism to monitor
each party’s performance of its Road Map obligations. We need to see that this
mechanism is not a vacuous one and that it leads to concrete results.
Moreover, we are now at the halfway point between the resumption of permanent
status negotiations at Annapolis and the end of 2008, by which time we are
expected to reach an agreement to resolve all outstanding issues to end the decades-long
conflict. The time is therefore most opportune for the EU to act on this
matter.
If the EU were to upgrade its relationship with Israel at this juncture, in
view of Israel’s systematic breach of legal obligations and agreements,
Palestinians could only view it as rewarding unlawful behavior – and Israel
could only interpret it to mean that such behavior and EU calls to stop it,
have no consequences. Furthermore, the EU would be depriving itself of an
important tool to push the peace process in the right direction, and
jeopardizing its ability to play the active political role this region needs
and that we, Palestinians, expect and support.
Now is the time for the EU to convey to its friend, Israel, that the key to
strengthening its ties with the EU is to demonstrate, by way of action, that it
indeed shares and embraces the goals and values of Europeans.
Now is the time for the EU to demonstrate to its Palestinian friends and other
friends in the region the seriousness with which it views the principled
position it has taken in the peace process.
Now – more than ever – is the time for the EU to act on the principled position
that it reaffirmed again today that Israeli settlement activity “anywhere in
the [OPT], including East Jerusalem, is illegal” and “threatens the viability
of an agreed two-state solution”.
I should note further that we do not consider the resumption or
indeed the upgrade of the EU’s relations with the PNA as an appropriate
substitute for principled action in the case of the EU’s relations with Israel.
The test, as we understand it, is not, and should not be, a relative one. We
therefore urge the EU to uphold fair, consistent and objective standards in its
dealings with all its neighbors.
I cannot overstate the need foraccountability at this juncture.
Whatever credibility and hope the peace process may have enjoyed at Annapolis
is fast fading, as is the viability of an agreed two-state solution.
Therefore, I strongly urge the EU to decide against the upgrade of its
relations with Israel until such time as Israel abides by international and
human rights laws, including by freezing all settlement activity, and allows
the Palestinian people to enjoy the same neighborly relations with the EU as
other nations in the region.
Please accept, your Excellency, the expression of my highest consideration.
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