Speaking at a briefing this evening in the Mansion House, Dublin, for Labour members and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) following his visit to the Palestinian Territory last week, where he led an official European Parliament Delegation, Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa said:

“The likelihood of establishing an independent Palestinian state through negotiations is rapidly disappearing. Israel’s occupation and colonisation of East Jerusalem, where there are now close to 200,000 settlers, and of the West Bank, where there are now over 300,000 settlers, coupled with the ongoing siege of Gaza, where 1.5m Palestinians are denied their basic human rights, leaves the moderate Palestinian leadership with virtually nothing to negotiate.

"One of the few positive developments has been the 8th December statement by the Council of European Foreign Ministers laying out in clear terms that Israel must abide by international law, accept Jerusalem as the capital of both Israel and Palestine and stop all settlement activity. The question on everyone’s lips is what action will the EU now take to make it possible for negotiations to commence?

"The stark truth about Israel’s activity in East Jerusalem for example is contained in the report that the Council has refused to publish, but which clearly was a basis for some of last week’s conclusions.

That report, prepared by the EU Heads of Mission in the Middle East is a damning indictment of Israel’s policy of claiming to want negotiations for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state while it continues to undermine the very basis for that state.

Page after page of the 21-page report points out the stark facts on the ground:

• Continued illegal occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem;
• Continued expansion of Israeli settlements which have intensified since 2008, and are heading towards 200.000, “making the creation of a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem inviable (sic);”
• Road plans for Israeli settler use only;
• Discrimination against Palestinians who receive between 5% and 10% of public investment despite making up 35% of the population of Jerusalem as a whole;
• Virtual impossibility for most Palestinian residents to get building permits;
• Ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes and evictions of families. Currently 60,000 Palestinians are at risk of having their homes demolished due to lack of permits;
• It points out the constant bureaucratic squeeze on residents through a permit system and roadblocks, to enter and leave their hometown;
• The division of Palestinian areas with the Wall;
• Some 17% of students face serious difficulties in reaching educational services with a further 32% reporting longer journeys in getting to learning-centres;
• The lack of classrooms is estimated at 1,500;
• The report goes on to detail the daily difficulties in accessing health care, access to religious sites, both for Muslims and Christians;
• The violence of Israeli settlers, including the taking of life with apparent impunity.

The illegal acts by Israel against the population and the failure to implement the Oslo Accords, which required Israel to permit the re-opening of Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem, leads to the authors to conclude that “The general sense of neglect felt by many East Jerusalemites and the absence of Palestinian state-sponsored institutions and secular organisations are paving the way for Islamic religious organisations to extend their influence”

While in Jerusalem last week I visited the three families in the Palestinian community known as Sheikh Jarrah, who in the previous few days had been evicted by Israeli settlers and their homes occupied by them. 28 families in this community are under threat of eviction. They appealed to the EU and to Ireland not to allow them to become refugees again.

Significantly the EU Heads of Mission report concludes: “The potential damage both to the fragile security environment within the city and to the prospects of a two state solution with Jerusalem as a capital for both states are obvious. As such the ongoing actions in Sheikh Jarrah represent both an immediate and long term strategic threat to European interests”.

Note:

Last week Proinsias De Rossa led a cross-party delegation of 8 MEPs on a four-day fact finding mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It included a meeting with PLC members in Bethlehem, Hebron, Ramallah and Gaza. It also included a meeting with Prime Minister Salem Fayyad.

However the visit was cut short as the permission given by Israel to travel into Gaza was rescinded following publication of the EU Foreign Minister statement re-iterating the EU support for a Two-State Solution with East Jerusalem as a capitol for both states, and calling for an end to settlement activity.