Gaza withdrawal on EU foreign ministers’ menu

By David Cronin

Date: 28/10/04

EU FOREIGN ministers traditionally devote their lunch-break at their monthly meetings to the latest atrocities in the Middle East.

Their discussion next week (2-3 November) should take stock of one of the most important events in the region's history - the vote by the Knesset to withdraw Israeli settlers from Gaza for the first time since capturing the territory in 1967.

However, the plan comes laden with conditions. Israel will continue to control the borders of Gaza, effectively dictating the movement of people and goods to and from this highly impoverished land.

The enormous opposition to the plan in Israel - including within Ariel Sharon's Likud party - means too that the possibility of it being derailed cannot be ruled out.

Also, the withdrawal plan coincides with the reinforcement of the occupation in the West Bank, particularly through building a security wall deep into it.

How should the Union - the biggest aid donor to the Palestinians - respond to the Gaza retreat? Does it bring the prospect of creating a Palestinian state any closer or is it an Israeli bid to undermine the 'roadmap' devised by the quartet of the EU, US, the United Nations and Russia?

"The EU provides an economic lifeline to the people in Gaza," says Tamara Witties from the Brookings Institute in Washington. "There is no question that the situation in the territories will remain dire.

"But third parties like the EU and US face two very stark choices: to make the best of this unilateral withdrawal and try to turn it into a stepping stone for implementation of the roadmap, or to just let it happen."

She advocates that the Union should build on its work in promoting financial accountability in the Palestinian Authority to seek deeper reforms in its administration. "More needs to happen in the coming months to prevent Gaza become an anarchic and miserable haven of squalor."

The European Commission has faced allegations that aid to Palestinians could have been used to fund terrorism.

Although the EU anti-fraud office OLAF has found no basis for the allegations, the EU executive has secured more robust controls of the Authority's budget.

Nevertheless, critics still complain that the EU has not been active enough in demanding an end to corruption in Yasser Arafat's administration.

The EU continues to recognise Arafat as the democratically elected leader of the Palestinians in contrast to the US policy of by-passing him.

Muriel Asseburg from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs laments that the EU has "not been active in producing new policies" on the Middle East lately.

She contends that the Union ought to be using its political leverage with Israel to push for an international peacekeeping force in the region.

Luisa Morgantini, chairwoman of the European Parliament's development committee, said that EU foreign ministers needed to exert greater pressure on Sharon to enter peace talks with the Palestinians.

"The EU reaction should be very strong: withdraw and at the same time negotiate," the Italian MEP said.

Although she welcomed the withdrawal vote, Morgantini noted that the Israeli army had preceded it with a two-day operation in Gaza, which cost 17 Palestinian lives.

Article discusses options for EU Foreign Ministers to react to the decision of the Israeli Government and Parliament on Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip.