40 + Jewish & Palestinian organisations defy EU secrecy

40 + Jewish & Palestinian organisations defy EU secrecy
Dismayed by the refusal of EU to publish their own Ramallah and East Jerusalem Heads of Mission findings regarding Israeli state actions towards non Jewish residents of East Jerusalem, Jewish and other peace groups and Palestinian Solidarity campaigns around Europe have decided they must take matters into their own hands.

Every organisation listed below will publish the Report on their websites. A copy of the report can be found on the PSC www.palestinecampaign.org

The day after the report was shelved by EU foreign ministers at their GAERC meeting in Brussels on December 12th - for fear of alienating Israel and reducing the EUs influence - Israel announced, in violation of its Road Map obligations, the building of 300 new homes in the Maale Adumim settlement, the largest in the occupied territories

Pierre Galand, Senator in the Belgian Parliament and Chairman of the European Co-ordinating Committee of NGOs on the question of Palestine (ECCP) said: European diplomats in East Jerusalem and Ramallah had the courage to stress the alarming situation in East Jerusalem. Their report corroborates the ICJ advisory opinion ruling on the Wall and the illegal settlements, which led the ECCP to initiate the European Campaign for Sanctions against the Israeli Occupation. In order to force the EU member states to respect their own commitment to International Law and Human Rights, we will publish the report on East Jerusalem on our websites, despite the EU refusal to do so.

Dan Judelson, Secretary of European Jews for a Just Peace said "The EU are burying their heads in the sand and are thus co-responsible while East Jerusalem residents face repeated violations of international law and of simple standards of humanity, all at the hands of the Israeli state. This is not a time for thumb twiddling or inaction; if the EU sits on this report, we see it as our duty to make it as widely available as we can."

Betty Hunter, General Secretary of the UK Palestinian Solidarity Campaign said: "It is 17 months since the International Court of Justice declared the apartheid Wall to be an illegal act by an occupying force and that settlement building should end. While Israel defies this decision, Palestinians are losing their homes, land and livelihood in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. If European countries continue to collude with this, they are also guilty of oppressing the Palestinian people."

To read the report "European Jews for a Just Peace" (This and most of the other organizations below have links to their own websites. You can find those links through the link I posted to the original article, at the bottom of the page, after the quote box. -Wordie)

1 Actieplatform Palestina - Belgium

2 Action for Peace - Italy

3 Alternative Information Centre, Bethlehem & Jerusalem

4 Arab Centre for Agricultural Development

5 Arab Media Watch, UK

6 Association Belgo-Palestinienne

7 Association France Palestine Solidarité

8 AIPPP Strasbourg

9 BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights,Bethlehem

10 Bat Shalom

11 BRICUP

12 Civimed Initiatives, Strasbourg

13 Collectif judéo-arabe et citoyen pour la paix, Strasbourg

14 Committee for a Just Peace in the Middle East, Luxembourg

15 Coordination de lAppel de Strasbourg

16 Council for the Advancement of Arab British Understanding, UK

17 Een Ander Joods Geluid, Netherlands

18 Farrah France

19 Friends of Sabeel-UK

20 Humanistic Peace Council. Netherlands

21 Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign

22 ISM France

23 ISM London

24 ISM Switzerland

25 Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-UK

26 Jewish Socialists Group, UK

27 Jews for Israeli Palestinian Peace, Sweden

28 Jews for Justice for Palestinians, UK

29 Jill Evans MEP (Plaid Cymru)

30 Joint Action for Israeli Palestinian Peace, UK

31 Judische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost, Berlin

32 Just Peace UK

33 Netherlands Palestine Committee

34 Network of Jews against the Occupation,Italy

35 NUS Black Students Campaign, UK

36 Palestine Forum in Britain

37 Palestine Solidarity Campaign, UK

38 Palestinian Counseling Center

39 Sapiens Promise, New Zealand

40 Society for Austrian Arab Relations, Austria

41 Spanish Solidarity Network Against Palestine Occupation

42 Stichting Talliq, Netherlands

43 Stop the Occupation, Netherlands

44 Transnational Institute, Netherlands

45 Union Juive Francaise pour la Paix

46 Union des Progressites Juifs de Belgique

47 War on Want, UK

48 Women in Black, The Netherlands

bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=9689

Suppressed EU report

SUMMARY

1. East Jerusalem is of central importance to the Palestinians in political, economic, social and religious terms. Several inter-linked Israeli policies are reducing the possibility of reaching a final status agreement on Jerusalem, and demonstrate a clear Israeli intention to turn the annexation of East Jerusalem into a concrete fact:

the near-completion of the barrier around east Jerusalem, far from the Green Line;

the construction and expansion of illegal settlements, by private entities and the Israeli government, in and around East Jerusalem;

the demolition of Palestinian homes built without permits (which are all but unobtainable);

stricter enforcement of rules separating Palestinians resident in East Jerusalem from those resident in the West Bank, including a reduction of working permits;

and discriminatory taxation, expenditure and building permit policy by the Jerusalem municipality.

2. The plan to expand the settlement of Maaleh Adumim into the so-called "E1" area, east of Jerusalem, threatens to complete the encircling of the city by Jewish settlements, dividing the West Bank into two separate geographical areas. The proposed extension of the barrier from East Jerusalem to form a bubble around the settlement of Maaleh Adumim would have the same effect. 2004 saw a near tripling of the number of Palestinian buildings demolished in East Jerusalem. We expect a similar number of demolitions in 2005. 88 homes in the Silwan neighbourhood with demolition orders outstanding against them attracted much attention in June.

3. When the barrier has been completed, Israel will control access to and from East Jerusalem, cutting off its Palestinian satellite cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah, and the rest of the West Bank beyond. This will have serious economic, social and humanitarian consequences for the Palestinians. By vigorously applying policies on residency and ID status, Israel will be able finally to complete the isolation of East Jerusalem - the political, social, commercial and infrastructural centre of Palestinian life.

4. Israels activities in Jerusalem are in violation of both its Roadmap obligations and international law. We and others in the international community have made our concerns clear on numerous occasions, to varying effect.

Palestinians are, without exception, deeply alarmed about East Jerusalem. They fear that Israel will "get away with it", under the cover of disengagement. Israeli actions also risk radicalising the hitherto relatively quiescent Palestinian population in East Jerusalem. Clear statements by the European Union and the Quartet that Jerusalem remains an issue for negotiation by the two sides, and that Israel should desist from all measures designed to pre-empt such negotiations, would be timely. We should also support Palestinian cultural, political and economic activities in East Jerusalem.