Mr President, although the Israeli-Palestinian question was central to the debate at Valencia – it could not be otherwise, given the tragic situation – there is no doubt that progress was made in adopting an agenda developing dialogue and partnership. Moreover, I feel that the decision to establish a Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly is not insignificant, and we must work towards this objective with great energy. I have expressed my opinion regarding the resolution of the conflict many times in the past and I am tired of saying the same things over and over again; moreover, I agree with much of what has been said here. I would therefore like to use my time today to read you some of the things said by Palestinian and Israeli women who came to Parliament together to call for a European peace-keeping intervention. They are women from The Jerusalem Link, Israeli and Palestinian women. They are voices preserving a glimmer of hope for the future, the voices of people who really are counting on us to act upon our resolutions. I do thank both Mr Piqué and Mr Solana – who is not here – and Commissioner Patten for both their words and gestures, but I feel that we must implement what we stated in our Parliamentary resolution. This is what the women said: ‘The deliberate killing of innocent civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli, cannot be condoned. Prolonging the suffering of the Palestinian people, destroying infrastructures and civilian houses and keeping President Arafat segregated will serve only to exacerbate the suffering and insecurity of both peoples and will destroy any possibility of peace. The two peoples cannot enjoy peace and security unless the root cause of this conflict, the true enemy of peace – military occupation – is eliminated. The two peoples are currently trapped in a climate of fear and of obsession with retaliation. We women refuse to be paralysed or divided by these fears. We cannot turn a blind eye to the policies and practices conceived with the aim of humiliating and oppressing the Palestinians and forcing them to submit to the strategic programme of expropriation, settlements and colonisation that Israel has been pursuing throughout 34 years of occupation. We cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that non-violent attempts by Palestinian movements to oppose the denial of their fundamental human rights have, in the past, always been met with violence and repressive measures from Israel and with silence on the part of the international community. If peace and security are to be achieved, we must put an end to the continued denial of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and do so in the context of fair, global negotiations. To this end, we call upon the international powers to provide an international presence in the Middle East to protect the civilian people. To this end, we call for the UN resolutions to be implemented. The rule of law, reciprocal recognition and reciprocal respect for individual and collective rights will pave the way to achieving peace.’ This is what those women said, and I feel that we cannot block our ears to these voices which are the voices of Israeli and Palestinian women but also of Palestinian and Israeli men uniting to say ‘That is enough! Stop the military occupation!’ Now we must turn words into tangible actions. The presence today of the European Union, which I hope will have been able to meet with President Arafat, is important, but we must make absolutely sure that Israel understands that we cannot allow it, in its unmitigated defence of its existence, its unmitigated defence against any potential threat to the Jewish people, to continue along its current path. We must use the instruments available to us too. We cannot be racist and suspend the agreement with Zimbabwe while treating Israel indulgently all the time. We must lose no time in taking action, for peace will benefit everybody.

Political group: GUE-NGL