BRUSSELS, May 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Several thousand people took to the streets in Brussels Wednesday, May 29, in a demonstration organized by the European Jewish Congress calling for more European solidarity with Israel, news agencies reported.

Police put the turnout at 4,000, while organizers said 15,000 participated in the march from Brussels' main synagogue to the European Parliament, waving Israeli flags, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We will never accept synagogues being set on fire in Europe, 55 years after Auschwitz and Hitler," said Michel Fridman, the German vice president of the European Jewish Congress.

"We are not here to protest against Palestinians or a Palestinian state," he said. "If they want a country, they might renounce terrorism forever."

The Transnational Radical Party, which has consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), took part in the demonstration with a banner reading "Israel in the European Union".

During the demonstration, it tried to gather support for the campaign for Israeli membership of the European Union, the party said on its website.

Already more than 2000 persons, amongst them MEPs, have signed the appeal. The Transnational Radical Party chose Wednesday to coincide with the European demonstration, organized by the European Jewish Congress. It also launched a campaign to publicize the appeal for Israeli membership of the European Union on the web-sites of the main Israeli papers: Yediot Aharonot, Maariv, Ha'Aretz and The Jerusalem Post.

The appeal was launched at the conclusion of the first conference "For the admission of Israel into the European Union", held last March at the European Parliament. MEP Marco Cappato, one of the leading members of the Transnational Radical Party, told the EU Observer that Israel's entry into the EU “would eliminate the country's isolation in the region, since at the moment it has enemies both outside and within.”

Asked about the present conflict in the Middle East, Cappato said that the issues should be tackled separately. "The campaign is not to make judgment on the current situation. Israel has a strong link with the EU, and thus it could help it make concessions that are not being made at the moment as its situation is seen as too risky." Cappato said Israel's entry into the EU is an issue that could never be discussed and a discussion could only occur in the following months. However, he feels that there is increasing support from MEPs although, he added, this is not endorsed by the EU mainstream.

"The EU has a mission of reinforcing and widening democracy around the world, and this democracy should be extended to the Middle East", Cappato told EU observer. In a letter to Chiara Steindler from the Transnational Radical Party, Joshua Sobol, one of Israel's leading playwrights, gave his full support to the campaign for the full integration of Israel in the European Union.

“Israel is not only an outpost of democracy in a region ruled by totalitarian regimes, but it is also a strongly creative power-plant of traditionally European ideas, concepts and approaches, while being at the same time a possible living bridge to the Middle-Eastern and Arab world,” said Sobol.

During the March conference, Raymond Cohen, a professor in the International Relations Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem explained why he felt Israel should be part of the EU.

“The proposal for Israel's admission to full membership of the European Union is an intriguing idea that could provide a new long-term vision for Israelis and help to reframe the dispute over the advantages and disadvantages of a peace settlement,” said Cohen.

“In reaction to the proposition of a European role, Israelis are likely to voice serious objections. They will protest that there can be no return to a European identity after the Holocaust, that hypothetical European security guarantees are no substitute for an American alliance, and that admission into the European Union would vindicate those who say that Israel is a foreign body in the Middle East.

“The rejoinder to all this must be that joining Europe does not preclude American guarantees and appropriate defensive arrangements, that contemporary Europe asks for no exclusive pledges of allegiance and that it is not an entity in the old-fashioned nation-state tradition.

“Moreover, an Israel trapped in eternal conflict with the Palestinians is hardly a viable long-term partner for the United States, let alone neighboring Arab countries.

“As part of the European Union, Israel would be able to shape its multifaceted identity and culture free from the crushing burdens of interminable historical grievances and obsessions.