Here's something we can all act upon!
See the ready text from the European Coordinating
Committee for Palestine, which you can email to all London MEP candidates before the May 2014 election.
You can find the list of all MEP candidates' emails, compiled by the WFPSC, far below.
Hold your candidates
to account during the European Elections, and help gather information which
will help Palestine supporters decide how to vote.
Challenging local,
regional, and national politicians on their position on EU relations with
Israel is a very important ongoing activity. Particularly in the run-up to
elections, engaging candidates and parties in EU-Israel relations related
questions can have an impact.
Any time is good to
ask your candidates about the EU- Israel relations but the run up to elections
provides a particularly good opportunity as more attention is paid to the
policies, intentions and promises of politicians and their parties.
How to act:
1. Identify your
candidate representative to the European Parliament and send him the questionnaire by email, post, or both.
2. Let us know that you’ve
received an answer so that we can raise awareness about it. We want to publish
the results on our website.
European elections 2014 – Questionnaire
The EU – a major player in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
While 2013 was marked by the revival of the Israeli-Palestinian peace
process under the aegis of the United States, the situation in Israel /
Palestine has continued to deteriorate.
Between March and
November 2013, the Israeli government has announced the construction of 8,943
new housing units in Israeli illegal settlements. The same year more than 399
settler attacks were directed at Palestinians. The living conditions of the
population in the Gaza Strip deteriorated significantly. Human rights are also
endangered in Israel: the Prawer Plan announced by the Israeli government
(currently suspended) will displace 30.000 – 40.000 Bedouin living in the Negev
desert if implemented.
1. Illegal Israeli settlements
For years, the
European Union repeats verbal denunciations of illegal Israeli settlements and
violations of human rights committed by Israel. Until now, these words were not
followed by action. In July 2013 the European Union has taken a first step to
exclude settlements from the EU funding projects by issuing guidelines that aim to prevent
Israeli projects in illegal Israeli settlements from receiving research grant
funding and prevent Israeli companies and institutions that operate inside
illegal Israeli settlements from participating in financial instruments such as
loans.
The EU should now go
further in its commitment to respect human rights in Israel and Palestine and
exclude Israeli illegal settlements from its cooperation with Israel.
The EU has to use all
its tools to discourage European companies (including importers) from maintaining
links with the illegal Israeli settlements.
In June 2013 the
European External Action Service has also stated that “The EU believes that the
Guiding Principles on business and human rights need to be applied globally and
calls on European companies to implement the Guiding Principles in all
circumstances, including in Israel and occupied Palestinian territory.”
The Netherlands and
Britain have already introduced their advice against doing business with
illegal Israeli settlements. The EU should go further and must
strengthen regulatory systems including controls and effective sanctions. The
EU could also adopt restrictive measures to prohibit the import of products
from the settlements.
2. The destruction of infrastructure funded by the EU
Infrastructure
financed by the European Union and its members in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories is being regularly destroyed by the Israeli forces. These
destructions are being listed, evaluated and systematically denounced by the
EU.
In her response to a
written parliamentary question – EU foreign policy chief Catherine
Ashton stated that the total cost of the destruction of EU financed
projects in the period 2001-2009 amounts to 49,14 million euro.
3. Gaza Strip
Israeli authorities
continue to impose an illegal blockade on Gaza which affects every aspect of
life in the Gaza Strip. The continuing siege of the Gaza Strip, together with
still longer-lasting and nearly complete blockade, have ruined the Palestinian
economy in Gaza, pushing a majority of the population below the poverty
threshold and destroying the hopes of young people.
Israel is party to
the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. The Fourth Geneva Convention on
occupation applies in Gaza since Israel still exercises control over Gaza’s
airspace, sea space and land borders, as well as its electricity, water, sewage
and telecommunications networks and population registry. Occupying powers have
a duty to ensure the security and well-being of the civilian population in
areas under their control. Israel’s continuing blockade of the Gaza
Strip, a measure that is depriving its population of food, fuel, and other
necessities, constitutes a form of collective punishment in violation of
article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
4. Israel’s policy of demolishing Palestinian homes and forced
displacement
Since 1967 Israel
has demolished more than 28,000 Palestinian homes, businesses, livestock
facilities and other structures vital to Palestinian life and livelihood in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). House demolitions and forced evictions
are among Israel’s most heinous practices in the OPT – though they continue to
be enacted on a broad scale within Israel as well. In 2013 Israel demolished
663 Palestinian structures displacing more than 1100 Palestinians. The EU frequently
criticises Israel’s ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes and its continued
settlements building as reflected in the ENP Progress Report published by the
European Commission.
In all the areas
mentioned above MEPs have a role to play: they can develop EU policy vis-à- vis
Israel to ensure respect for international law by challenging the EU and its
member states policy.
MEPs must confirm and
strengthen their commitment to the just solution of the Israeli- Palestinian
conflict.
The European
Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP) calls on all
EU candidates to take a critical position on the Euro-Israeli relations, the
destruction of infrastructure funded by the EU and the continued blockade of
Gaza.
QUESTIONS:
As MEP:
1.Will you support
measures to exclude Israeli illegal settlements from the EU relations with
Israel?
Yes
No
I don’t know
2.And will you
support a campaign to exclude goods entering the EU from Israel’s settlements
beyond the Green Line?
Yes
No
I don’t know
3.Will you ensure
that the EU fully applies the conditionality clause guaranteeing respect for
human rights in all its future and current agreements between the EU and
Israel?
Yes
No
I don’t know
4.Will you oppose
Israel’s violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, and
will you support Palestinians’ right to self-determination?
Yes
No
I don’t know
5. Any other
comments: ……………………….
List of MEPs' emails:
caroline.attfield@tesco.net
sheila_lawlor@yahoo.com
glyn@gechambers.net
JennyKnight@EngDem.org
press@nhap.org
brenda_23@hotmail.co.uk
lucy@lucyanderson.org
ivana@ivanabartoletti.co.uk
Bounced
back: kamaljeet@kamaljeetjandu.org.uk
andreabiondi4mep@gmail.com
jonathan.fryer@libdems4london.org.uk
rosina@trlibdems.org.uk
Bounced back:matt@mattjmclaren.eu
Contact via website, Fecabook
etc.
Simon James via the LB Kingston: http://www.kingstonlibdems.org/web/?q=contact
Very happy to answer "Yes" to all the above questions and to work with PSC for justice in the Middle East. I am a founder member of the Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine, as well as No. 2 on the London LibDem Euro-list. Best email for me is: jonathanfryer@hotmail.com. Greetings! Jonathan Fryer
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