International

Yesterday in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), SP Senator Anja Meulenbelt took the floor on behalf of the Unified European Left (UEL) in an emergency debate on the situation in the Middle East. Representatives of both the Israeli Knesset and the Palestinian executive were in attendance. “Whenever it is demanded of the Palestinians that they renounce violence, recognise the State of Israel, and keep to treaty agreements, then these same demands should be made of Israel,” Meulenbelt declared.

Israel has not recognised the Palestinians' right to a viable state with secure borders, has not for one moment put a stop to its violence – the number of civilian dead amongst Palestinians is four times as great as that on the Israeli side – and has at no time taken seriously the demand for a freeze on settlements. It has also performed extremely badly when it comes to upholding human rights. A resolution put forward by Meulenbelt's SP colleague, leader of the party's Senate group and chair of the UEL Tiny Kox, calling on Israel as well as the Palestinians to respect UN resolutions, was adopted.

The UEL congratulated the Norwegians on having been the first to break the Western boycott and to talk to the new Palestinian government. “We would certainly like our own foreign minister to have got that far,” Meulenbelt said.

The emergency debate formed part of the preparations for the shortly to be organised meeting between Israeli, Palestinian and European parliamentarians.