Summary: November 7, 2000: Statement by Mr. Christophe Bigot. Report of the Special Committee to investigate israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other arabs of the occupied territories (New York)
Mr. Chairman,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Central and Eastern European countries associated with the European Union (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia) and Cyprus, associated country, align themselves with this statement.
The European Union has expressed itself many times on the very serious events that have taken place since September 28th in the occupied territories and in Israel. The heads of State and of Government of the European Union gathered in Biarritz on October 13th have among others adopted a substantial declaration. The European Union would nevertheless like to repeat its position before the Fourth Committee.
This drama, which has deeply distressed the world and caused the death of more than 180 people and thousands of injured, has demonstrated how fragile the peace process is. Madrid, then Oslo and the difficult but productive progression of the peace process have been endangered. The spiral of violence was triggered and threatened to irreparably harm peace. The European leaders had solemnly called upon Israeli and Palestinian leaders to stop violence and to resume negotiations. We are pleased that
both parties remain strongly committed to a peace approach, only possible way out of the current crisis. The understandings reached at the Sharm-el-Sheik summit and the agreement reached between the two Peace Nobel prize winners, Mr. Shimon Peres and Mr. Yasser Arafat are favorable steps. Those agreements have to be respected.
The peace negotiations have to resume. There is no alternative to that process. Only peace will allow to remedy the frustrations and despair of the Palestinians after 33 years of occupation. And to ensure Israel's security in its internationally acknowledged borders. And the lasting and peaceful cohabitation of two States on the territory of mandated Palestine.
The interim agreements must also be fully implemented. That is important for the confidence between the parties to be restored and for the daily life of the Palestinians to improve rapidly. From September 1999 to March 2000, we had been encouraged by the progress following the implementation of the memorandum agreed upon in Sharm-el-Sheik on 4 September 1999 : restitution of some territories to the Palestinian Authority, release of prisoners, opening of the Hebron-Gaza safe passage as well as
the green light to the reconstruction of Gaza harbour. Despite the active continuation of the settlement policy, the situation in the Palestinian territories had therefore been improving strongly. It is regrettable that that agreement has not been fully respected.
The permanent status negotiations must also resume. The decisive progress accomplished at Camp David must not be forgotten. We welcome the efforts and the courage of the Israelis and the Palestinians for having entered that essential stage of the negotiations in a spirit of compromise, and for having proposed solutions which were daring, even difficult for the Israeli and Palestinian public opinions.
It is also important that Israeli practices in the occupied territories respect international humanitarian law. The European Union has expressed itself many times those last few weeks on the operations by the Israeli armed forces. The European Union has condemned the excessive use of force as well as the operations of retaliation. The European Union regrets the locking up of the territories, the obstacles to the free circulation of persons and goods, the obstacles to humanitarian relief and to
the activities of UN agencies as UNRWA in favour of the refugees. Those operations are in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The Union welcomes the fact that the parties have accepted a committee of fact-finding to be established. We hope that this committee will be able to clarify the responsibilities of all in the spiral of violence. Every lesson has to be drawn from those events, so that they cannot happen again.
About the United Nations protection force proposed by the Observer of Palestine, the European Union would like to stress that the resolution on Israeli practices, in particular its PP13, bears no implication for the EU position on that proposal currently before the Security Council.
It is important to go back over the issue of settlement policy. It is in the heart of the difficulties of the peace process. It is feeding frustration among Palestinians. It is creating useless friction points on the ground. It is complicating the negotiation on final settlement by making higher the cost of a withdrawal from the territories among the Israeli public opinion. That practice infringes Security Council and General Assembly resolutions. Seeking a fait accompli on the ground is not in
accordance with the spirit of the peace process. Do we need to repeat that the many interim agreements reached since Oslo between both parties all contain a clause calling for the prevention of unilateral actions ?
But the settlement policy sadly went on at a spectacular pace in Jerusalem and the occupied territories. Despite the commitments made by the Israeli government, almost every 42 "new settlement points" which had been installed without any authorization during the Israeli electoral campaign of 1999 have been maintained and developed. Many of the theoretically frozen settlements have as a matter of fact expanded. The settlers have been able to resettle on half of theoretically evacuated sites. The
Israeli National Bureau of Statistics has given illuminating indications on the growth rate of constructions : plus 81 percent in the first quarter of 2000. In Jerusalem, the settlement policy went on in Har-Homa and Ras-Al-Amud. Southwest of Nablus, in the region of Latroun, as in Goush Etzion (around Jerusalem and Bethlehem), the same phenomenon could be noticed. The apparent aim is to make definitive some settlements west of the "green line" and to control water resources.
Nevertheless, the action taken by the Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories is not the best way to deal with those various issues. It would be preferable to deal with them in another context, which could be more favorable to the spirit of compromise and of mutual understanding.
The European Union would finally like to reiterate its commitment to the peace process and to a just and comprehensive settlement of the peace process based on Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 and on Madrid and Oslo agreements. The European Union reiterates its disposition to contribute to a final settlement between the parties.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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