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An Article in the East Anglian Daily Times of April 3rd, 2002

Europe's Duty in the Middle East

A French colleague in the European Parliament explained what it was like to be an occupied nation. There could, he said, be no reconciliation without major concessions by the occupying forces. Unless there were respect for fundamental freedoms, including the right to self-expression, tolerance of dissent and the fostering of democratic institutions, there would be no peace. In the absence of liberalisation there could only be repression: occupation is inherently unstable, and had to be continually imposed to last. Without democracy, resistance had to take violent forms, and would inevitably lead to reprisals from the occupying forces.

The French MEP was, of course, drawing from his memories of the German occupation of France in the Second World War. But we were discussing the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The parallels are, indeed, acute and dramatic. To a multi-national, multi-ethnic European Parliament, in which the collective memory of the Nazi persecution of the Jews is very much alive, the sight of Israeli troops writing numbers on the wrists of their Palestinian prisoners has been particularly shocking.

Europe's role in the Middle East has been limited. The EU is the highest donor of aid to the Palestinians; with Israel we have a trade agreement; and our contacts at the political and diplomatic level with both Israelis and Palestinians are at a fairly high level. We continue to sell arms to Israel. But despite its geographical and cultural proximity with the Middle East, the European Union has always worked under the shade of the USA. It is now time to leave the American shadow and play a much more independent role.

In the Convention on the Future of Europe, in which I am privileged to serve, one of the main areas of agreement is that the powers of the Union must be strengthened in the field of foreign, security and defence policy. High on the list is the setting up of an EU Rapid Reaction Force of 60,000 troops that can be posted on peace-making, peace-keeping and humanitarian duties. Regrettably, Greek objections to the potential involvement of Turkey (a non-EU member of NATO) in certain Rapid Reaction Force operations is holding up the launch of this initiative. But such a force is badly needed to complement the political intervention which Europe must now make to get Israel to withdraw from the Occupied Territories of Palestine.

Andrew Duff is the Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament for the East of England. He can be contacted at Orwell House, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0PP or via www.andrewduffmep.org.