Attempts to justify suicide bomb attacks unacceptable, Israel’s Peres tells Parliament

Date: 24/10/02

SHIMON Peres, Israel's deputy prime minister, this week hit out at MEPs for attempting to justify atrocities such as Monday's suicide attack on a bus near Tel Aviv.

The bomb, which left 14 dead including the bomber, was the deadliest in Israel for several months. The militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

The bus, which was attacked near the town of Pardes Hanna, was reduced to a shell by the inferno.

Peres, who visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday, told European Voice that, while he recognised that some criticism of his country's role in Middle East was 'normal in a democracy', he 'could not understand' those who tried to justify acts of terror against his country.

'I am not, of course, talking about the European Parliament in general. I am talking about certain MEPs,' said Peres, the elder statesman of Israeli politics. 'I simply do not understand how they can attempt to justify atrocities such as this week's bomb attack. This was a vile attack.

'We can talk and talk with the Palestinians but one single bomb can kill the whole agenda.'

Asked whether he felt the EU was biased in favour of the Palestinians, Peres replied that he had the 'fullest respect' for the EU and its institutions.

However, the former Nobel Prize winner regretted that MEPs had 'turned their back' on Israel last April by calling for trade sanctions over a dispute on the origin of exports (goods now bear a 'Made in Israel' label, even if they are produced in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority).

Nevertheless, Peres said he believes the EU can still be a 'major player' in helping to bring peace to the Middle East and said he hoped that Israel would one day join the EU.

The foreign minister, who has long been the Israeli political establishment's loudest and most determined advocate of peace, called on Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat to disown the dissident groups which 'wage war' on Israel.

Peres, 79, twice prime minister of Israel, added: 'What is it that the Palestinians are fighting for? If it is independence, we have given them independence. If it is a Palestinian state, we have given them a Palestinian state. If it is to get back land, we have given them back land.'

During his visit to the Parliament, Peres met political group leaders and Pat Cox, the assembly's president. Cox condemned Monday's bomb attack as 'outrageous'.

Shimon Peres, Israel's deputy prime minister, has hit out at MEPs for attempting to justify atrocities such as the suicide bomb attack on a bus near Tel Aviv on 21 October 2002.