Sunday, June 13, 2010

EU ready to intensify pressure on Israel to lift Gaza blockade


Spain, France, Italy and UK lead calls for robust stance as Netanyahu hints at softer line on entry of civilian aid

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem

The European Union is expected to intensify pressure on Israel to ease its blockade of the Gaza Strip when its foreign ministers meet in Brussels tomorrow amid calls to adopt a robust position.

Spain, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, will press for a vigorous approach with support from France, Italy and the UK. José Luis Zapatero, Spain's prime minister, called at the weekend for a "strong joint EU position on the siege".

Zapatero said his foreign minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, would argue at the meeting that the EU should "stand up for the end of the blockade on Gaza and that it extends all its political and diplomatic capacity to reach that goal".

Moratinos and his French and Italian counterparts, Bernard Kouchner and Franco Frattini, co-authored an article in the International Herald Tribune last week urging an easing of the blockade.
In the wake of Israel's attack on the flotilla carrying aid to Gaza William Hague, the foreign secretary, described the siege as unacceptable and counterproductive.

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told cabinet colleagues today that discussions about Israel's policy towards Gaza, which have included three meetings with the Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair in the past eight days, were continuing.

Blair has been authorised by the Quartet - the US, UN, EU and Russia - to try to reach an agreement with Netanyahu on easing the blockade.

He is pressing for Israel to substitute the current "allowed" list of items permitted to enter Gaza - all items not on the list are forbidden - for a "banned" list (a limited number of prohibited items, with everything else permitted). The result would be greater transparency and accountability.
Netanyahu told the cabinet: "The principle guiding our policy is clear - to prevent war material from entering Gaza and to allow the entry of humanitarian aid and non-contraband goods."

Following today's Israeli cabinet meeting, Blair said: "I welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu's clear distinction between Israel's necessity to protect its security and otherwise to allow Gaza people to get the goods and material they require for ordinary life."

Despite the pressure to relax the siege, Israel is reluctant to make a dramatic move which would allow Hamas to claim a victory.

Aid agencies and the UN are also concerned that Israel will restrict any relaxation to essential humanitarian supplies which, although much needed, will not help Gaza's legitimate economy to recover and regain its authority over the black market economy which is based on goods smuggled in via tunnels from Egypt Phil Bloomer, Oxfam's policy director, said: "[Gaza's] conventional economy is in tatters, and without a full lifting of the blockade it will continue on a downward spiral, stopping Gazans rebuild their lives."

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, arrived in Gaza today in the most high-profile visit by an Arab official since Hamas took control of the territory in June 2007 after winning elections six months earlier.

He was expected to meet the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, to discuss the prospects of reconciliation between Fatah, which dominates the West Bank and is the party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas.

He told a press conference in Rafah: "The Palestinians deserve that the world, and not just the Arab world, stand by them in the face of the siege and in the face of what is happening in the occupied territories and Jerusalem."

Two weeks after the lethal attack on the aid flotilla by Israeli commandos, there is still no firm announcement of an inquiry despite international pressure.

There has been speculation that the issue may have become linked to demands for a relaxation of the blockade in that pressure for an independent international inquiry may be eased if Israel agrees to allow more aid into Gaza.

Israel has proposed an internal investigation, headed by a former supreme court judge, Yaakov Tirkel, with up to three international observers. The US has yet to agree to this formula.

Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barak, today called off a trip to a Paris arms show amid reports that pro-Palestinian groups in France would seek his arrest over the flotilla deaths.

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