Rights, Freedoms and Repression Woman whose soup run fed 250 homeless in Dublin told to cease or face €300k fine 21:35 Feb 07 2 comments Germany cannot give up it's Nazi past - Germany orders Holocaust survivor institutionalized over Cov... 23:31 Jan 14 1 comments Crisis in America: Deaths Up 40% Among Those Aged 18-64 Based on Life Insurance Claims for 2021 Afte... 23:16 Jan 06 0 comments Protests over post-vaccination deaths spread across South Korea 23:18 Dec 26 0 comments Chris Hedges: The execution of Julian Assange 22:19 Dec 19 1 comments more >>Blog Feeds
Anti-EmpireNorth Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi? Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi? Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi? ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi? US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty
Human Rights in IrelandPromoting Human Rights in Ireland
Lockdown Skeptics
Dozens of British Women Have Seen Their Breasts Grow After the Covid Jab Sun Jan 12, 2025 13:00 | Richard Eldred
Michael ?Hockey Stick? Mann Ordered To Pay National Review Over $500,000 Sun Jan 12, 2025 11:00 | Richard Eldred
NHS?s Tech ?Efficiency? Adds Layers of Inefficiency and Pain Sun Jan 12, 2025 09:00 | Shane McEvoy
Cooking the Books: Why You Just Can?t Trust the Annual Bestseller Lists Anymore Sun Jan 12, 2025 07:00 | Steven Tucker
News Round-Up Sun Jan 12, 2025 01:23 | Will Jones
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international editionVoltaire, International Newsletter N?114-115 Fri Jan 10, 2025 14:04 | en End of Russian gas transit via Ukraine to the EU Fri Jan 10, 2025 13:45 | en After Iraq, Libya, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, the Pentagon attacks Yemen, by Thier... Tue Jan 07, 2025 06:58 | en Voltaire, International Newsletter N?113 Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:42 | en Pentagon could create a second Kurdish state Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:31 | en |
Middle East roadmap for peace effectively torn up
international |
rights, freedoms and repression |
press release
Friday February 10, 2006 12:53 by cafe - labour
failure of the European Union to engage with the relatively moderate recent statement from Hamas, which suggested a role for the international community in the initiation of talks, which, taking as their starting point, the international legal position of the 1967 borders, and which could lead to recognition of the state of Israel by Hamas, is deeply disappointing - says Michael D.Higgins The European Union is looking on at the ending of the proposals for peace in the Middle East known as the Road Map for peace. Whatever opportunity existed for the European Union as a member of the Quartet which proposed such peace proposals is rapidly evaporating. |
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 1 2Actually I can't agree with mr Higgins and would like to point out to the reader that the Oslo accords hence the term "road map" are not a European Union initiative. The European Union's initiative on middle east peace was set out in the Barcelona declaration of 1995. The 10th anniversary of that declaration saw the "first mediterranean social forum" on bloomsday 2005 in Barcelona where several thousand delegates of the European and mediterranean left with special guests from Western Sahara took part in information exchange, seminars, and conferences.
It was during that meeting that delegates from the indymedia groups of the mediterranean meeting with the collectives of Israel, Beirut and Jerusalem suggested the global adoption of the term "aparthied state" for both Israel proper and the occupied territories. The groups, collectives, political parties present in their final statement expressed continuing support and solidarity with the democratic process in the Levant and Maghreb.
That was on the "left" side of things, but obviously to the left of Irish Labour, but truly representative of the socialist movement in Europe proper.
On the EU side of things, the 10th anniversary of the "Barcelona declaration" saw the leaders of all states in the Mediteranean with the exception of Israel who were represented at a lower level assemble to agree a "definition of terrorism" which did not exclude "the right to self-determination".
The result was less satisfactory than had been hoped, but the declaration and process is not dead.
The current attitude of the EU under the Austrian presidency to peace in the middle east has been characterised by concerns on security, a result of the evacauation of the European observer mission to the West Bank, but there has been no statement of refusal to work with a Hamas government.
Rather to the contrary there have been in the last days at the Russia/Spain summit clear indications of a willingness to co-operate with a Hamas government and facilitate its transformation from a party of armed struggle to one of "conflict resolution". The invitation of mr Putin for Hamas to visit Moscow issued yesterday has been welcomed by Jordan a regional guarantor of the Oslo accords, the Camp David accords and the Barcelona declaration.
The true acid test of European attitude to the evolution of Palestinian statehood as a remedy to the internecine conflict lies in the support given by European states (if not by the central eurocracy) in the last weeks to continued funding of the PA and pressure placed on the Israeli central bank under its director (appointed 2005) Mr Fischer. Fischer has made it clear he wishes to honour the comitments of the israeli state to the palestinian authority on the payment of fiscal revenue at Israeli controlled frontiers in Gaza and West bank and with Egypt. This amounts to 40% of the budgetary requirements of the Palestinian Authority.
links of interest for any Higgins :-
http://www.iemed.org/euromed/edeclaracio.php
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/69020
"your time to bloom has gone michael, the left will not coalesce with the right happily again"
"Israel proper"??? What makes Zionist occupation of some Palestinian lands "proper"? Is it the fact that western interloapers have given Zionists thier blessings for Zionists to be murderous thieves of SOME Palestinian lands, BUT NOT ALL Palestinian lands?
Zionist occupation of ANY Palestinian lands is not "proper". It might be appeased by interloaper power brokerSS. But it is NOT "proper", even with YOUR blessings.
There has never been a "road map to peace" because Zionist occupation of Palestinian lands is no more "peace" than Nazi occupation of Denmark was equatble with peace. Or Brittish occupation of Ireland. Was that "peace" to the vanquished locals of Ireland?
There has been a road map to appeasment when Palestinians elected Fatah. And the goal was Vichy Palestine. The Nazi's "generous offer" to the vanquished French people was over 1/3 of France for a French STATE. Zionists "offered" less than 1/6 of Zionist occupied palestine for a Palestinian STATE. Nazis were more than twice as "generous" to the people they occupied than Zionists are to palestinians. But Fatah controle of Palestinians just saw Zionists stealing MORE Palestinian lands and murdering MORE Palestinians who resisted the ZIonist's continuing theft of Palestinian lands as well as murdering Palestinians who were just in the wrong place as defined by the murderous thieving Zionist crusaders.
If the murderous theft of SOME Palestinian lands is "proper", who gets to decide how much is "proper"? You??? DO you atribute to yourselves the authority of Satan? Do you atribute to yourselves authorities that Jesus denied even unto himself??? Just who do you think you are?