NAPLES, Italy, 4 December 2003 — The European Union ended two days of talks with Israel and its Arab neighbors yesterday by mixing new pledges of economic and moral support for the troubled region with harsh words for Palestinian fighters and hard-line Israeli policies.
Both are dooming the peace process, said a statement issued after the foreign ministers meeting.
EU and Arab delegates criticized a concrete wall Israel is erecting around the West Bank and East Jerusalem and that cuts into Palestinian areas at various locations.
“We pointed to the need for the security barrier not to invade Palestinian territory,” Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters afterward.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom insisted the wall bolsters the “road map” to peace plan by keeping Palestinian bombers away from Jewish populations.
Given the Arab-Israeli rift over how to achieve peace, the statement was not a joint communiqué, but contained EU-drafted “conclusions” of the tenor of the discussions.
It said Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia must eradicate “extremist violence (and) consolidate all Palestinian security services. The fight against terrorism, remains one of the priorities of the entire international community.”
The EU also announced new steps to narrow the Arab-Israeli divide that keeps its southern doorstep unstable and poor.
It set up a Euro-Mediterranean parliamentary assembly and a Euro-Mediterranean Foundation to debate how the Mideast can shed its “clash of cultures” syndrome that only generates hostilities.
Initiatives would encompass joint Arab-Israeli educational projects and exchanges of experts, scientists, students and artists.
The aim is to bring into the Mideast debate individuals untainted by entrenched political and religious convictions that only trigger more conflict. The two-page statement cautioned Israel that the “sharply deteriorating humanitarian situation in the West Bank and the Gaza” fuels terrorism.
It said any Mideast peace accord must include Syria and Lebanon, though Shalom downplayed Damascus’ offer of new peace talks saying it must first stop supporting Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian militant groups.
In cautious terms, it welcomed the symbolic peace accord, unveiled in Geneva this week, that proposes solutions for the most intractable disputes: borders close to Israel’s pre-1967 frontiers, giving Palestinians most of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and part of occupied Jerusalem and removing most Israeli settlements there.
French Foreign Minister Dominique De Villepin said it “complemented” the road map, the only official plan on offer, adding, “The Geneva agreement shows dialogue is still possible between Israelis and Palestinians.”
The EU-drafted statement simply said peace “initiatives from civil society on both sides were welcomed.”
The Euro-Mediterranean meeting is a regular part of the EU’s economic outreach program that has poured more than $11.8 billion in economic and other support for Israel and its Arab neighbors since 1995 to support of US-led peace efforts.
The 15 EU nations and Israel, Algeria, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Mauritania, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Cyprus and Malta attended it. Libya attended as an observer.
Over dinner Tuesday, diplomats said, Shalom criticized the Geneva accord as the work of Israeli opposition figures bent on undermining Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s conservative government.
The West Bank wall sparked a “lively” dinner debate with Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath called it a “wall of apartheid.” He urged the EU to impose sanctions to get Israel to tear it down.
