ACTION ALERT! Write your MEPs to ask them to vote against EU-Israel Association Agreement

[mary <humdrum2 at libero.it>]

http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/12/01/israel-is-not-european-contact-your-meps/

ISRAEL IS NOT EUROPEAN! Contact your MEPs

By
Guest Post
• Dec 1st, 2008 at 15:53 • Category:
Action
Alert,
Israel,
Newswire,
Zionism

(in the map of Europe… there’s no Israel- Pro Forma letter follows)
WRITTEN BY FRIENDS OF LEBANON: Here is your chance to send another
critical message.  Israel is not European by any definition. 
Yet it yearns for European protection.  Bit by bit, Israel has been
building a European façade.  Defies logic, doesn’t it?  Sad,
but true, we are enablers.  In its meeting on 5 November 2008 in
Brussels, the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Security of the European
Parliament endorsed the European Commission and Council proposal about
Israeli participation in the European Community programs. This new
protocol of cooperation offers to Israel full access to the EU
scientific, academic, research and technical programs.  But we have
one last chance to annul this action.  For its entry into force, the
agreement must have the backing of European Parliament. It will be
submitted to a vote at the plenary meeting on Thursday, 4 December in
Brussels. The Israeli Foreign Minister will visit the European Parliament
on Tuesday, 2 December to pressure MEPs to vote in favour of this
agreement. We owe it to the people of Palestine and Lebanon to uphold
European standards and pressure our Parliament to say no.
Urgent Appeal:
Here are links where you can find all the information needed to contact
your MEPs

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members.do?language=EN;http://www.writetothem.com/. 
 

Alternatively, contact the media.  If you are in Brussels, arrange a
demonstration.  Enough of the “he started it” excuses; the illegal
and inhumane conduct of Israel can not be tolerated.  

There will be a chance to learn more about how we ordinary citizens can
say no to belligerence.  A conference is soon to take place in
Lebanon: The Beirut International Forum for Resistance, Anti-Imperialism,
Solidarity between Peoples, and Alternatives: Beirut, Lebanon, 16­18
January 2009.  Further details

here.  Detailed descriptions on each of the workshop are
available on request.  For more information on participation in the
Forum, please contact:
Beirutforum2009 at gmail.com
.

Pro forma letter:

Dear Member of European Parliament,

As a member of your constituency and as a concerned citizen of the world,
I urge you to vote against the EU-Israel Association Agreement on
December 4. This agreement involves the strengthening of a broad spectrum
of ties with Israel – including economic, trade, academic, security and
diplomatic relations – at a time when the European Union should be
challenging Israel and holding it accountable for its persistent
violations of human rights and international law.

The EU is well aware of Israel’s ongoing illegal occupation of Gaza and
the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the massive colonization of
the latter; after all, the EU member-states have regularly voted for UN
resolutions condemning Israel’s human rights violations, collective
punishment and construction of settlements and the Wall. Moreover, in
2002 the EU Parliament voted to suspend the EU-Israel Association
Agreement on the grounds of Israel’s violations of human rights. Since
these violations are still ongoing, there is no reason for the EU to
change its decision to suspend the agreement.

Indeed, Israel still maintains its criminal one-year-long siege on Gaza –
described by the current UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, Prof.
Richard Falk as a “prelude to genocide” – that has already cost the lives
of hundreds of patients, mainly children and elderly, all denied freedom
of movement to access treatment outside Gaza. Israel’s siege has
intentionally and systematically impoverished hundreds of thousands of
civilians in Gaza, more than 50% by now, shutting down most of the
industrial sector and ruining agriculture. Most vital infrastructure has
been destroyed and the economy has completely collapsed; malnourishment
among children has increased sharply, as noted in various UN
reports.

Furthermore, Israel has continuously disregarded basic human rights by
the enclosure and forced displacement of entire Palestinian communities
behind the illegal Wall, the imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians
without trial, and its policy of extra-judicial assassination. Israel has
also stubbornly refused, for over 60 years and despite its obligations
under international law, to recognize and implement the right of millions
of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, as stipulated in UNGA
resolution 194. Last, but certainly not least, for 60 years, Israel has
enacted a system of state-sanctioned racial discrimination against
Palestinians with Israeli citizenship in vital domains, including land
ownership and employment, simply because they are “non-Jews.”

As such, I am appalled that the EU refuses to take concrete action to
condemn Israel on any of these accounts. Instead, the EU is proposing to
turn a blind eye to Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights by
deepening its relations with the occupying power. These sorts of
cooperation agreements that increase Israel’s relationships with the
international community are one of Israel’s primary means of its ongoing
occupation, the displacement of and systematic racial discrimination
against the Palestinian people. By engaging in this agreement, the EU
sends the message that it effectively condones the Israeli apartheid
regime, and that it will not challenge Israel on its massive violations
of Palestinian rights.

I therefore urge you, as a representative of the European Union and as a
global citizen of conscience, to vote against the EU-Israel Association
Agreement. In so doing, you would be heeding the call from the
Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC),
which represents the entire spectrum of Palestinian civil society, and
which has been endorsed by over 100 international organizations, to exert
pressure on Israel and to isolate it, rather than to strengthen ties with
it
(
http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/179). This call was taken up by Father
Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, President of the UN General Assembly, who
urged the United Nations to consider following the lead of this
generation of civil society who are calling for a campaign of boycott,
divestment, and sanctions to pressure Israel to end its violations. I
believe it is high time that the EU adopt this position as well.

As such, your vote is an important one in suspending the agreement,
thereby standing up to injustice in Palestine. I urge you to listen to
your constituents, and to the hundreds of civil society organizations
from around the world who call upon the EU to stop rapprochement with
Israel, and instead to hold it accountable for its ongoing violations of
human rights and international law.

Sincerely,