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Europeans Want End To Israeli Siege On Palestinian Territories
JERUSALEM, March 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Visiting European leaders urged Israel Tuesday to lift its punishing economic sanctions against the Palestinians, warning that without such action it would be hard to resume peace negotiations.
"If the economy continues to deteriorate, more people plunge into poverty, the Palestinian administration is undermined, it's going to be more difficult to get back to any political stability, [and] re-launch the [peace] process," EU external affairs commissioner Chris Patten told a press conference.
The EU delegation held talks with new Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres about the situation in the territories.
Israel has imposed tough economic sanctions, including withholding tax revenue, and a blockade on the Palestinian territories since the eruption of deadly Israeli-Palestinian unrest more than five and a half months ago.
Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh said that EU officials, who met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza on Monday, had raised their concerns during discussions with the Israelis.
"We hope there will soon be developments," EU Middle East envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos said.
Lindh and Patten are also due later to meet with Peres, who voiced his opposition Monday to collective punishment against the Palestinians and described Israel's policy as "more carrot than stick."
Palestinian officials accuse Israel of withholding $400 million in tax revenues and customs duties that it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority under economic accords.
The United States renewed appeals to Israel to ease economic pressure on Palestinians by releasing withheld tax revenues owed to Arafat's self-rule authority.
Peres, however, speaking at the same press conference, said the problem was that "Force 17 [Arafat's personal bodyguard] takes part in the violence, and some of that money goes to it in the form of salaries."
The blockade prevents more than 100,000 Palestinian from working at their jobs in Israel and curtails the ability of the three million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to move between Arab-run areas.
The army eased restrictions on several Palestinian towns Tuesday after Sharon came under fire, even from within his own government, over a tightening of a blockade around Ramallah, considered the capital of the West Bank.
But a top Palestinian official denounced Tuesday's as cosmetic the Israeli army's easing of a blockade on several towns in the West Bank, branding Sharon's policy towards the Palestinians "cruel and inhumane".
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