(ENGLISH)STRASBOURG APPEAL

STRASBOURG APPEAL

For a fair and sustainable peace between Palestinians and Israelis!

The Wall and the occupation:

Crimes against the Palestinian people, impasse for Israeli society

Demonstration, Strasbourg

on Saturday, June 12 at 3.00pm

To insist that the government of Ariel Sharon respects international and humanitarian law - which has been deliberately violated by the construction of the Wall, by the destruction of hundreds of civilians` homes entailing numerous casualties and by other acts - the European Union has a powerful means of applying pressure: the suspension of the European Union - Israel Association Agreement *.

This Agreement has a condition:

Respect of human rights by the State of Israel

(Article 2)

By making the situation for the Palestinians worse and by making their daily lives even more unbearable, the Wall, like the continuing occupation and the presence of the Israeli army in the occupied Territories, compromises any perspective for a fair solution to the conflict. Its construction prevents the creation of a viable and sovereign Palestinian State. The perspective of coexistence of two States is ruined.

We, signatories of this appeal, who are against any violence against

civilians as well any acts of despicable reprisals, demand:

• The suspension of the European Union - Israel Association Agreement until the State of Israel respects human rights;
• The immediate deployment of an international protection force for the Palestinian people;
• The immediate and definitive retreat of the Israeli army from all the occupied Territories as well as a real dismantling of the settlements and the Wall;
• Adoption by the United Nations of binding measures towards the State of Israel so that it finally applies the numerous UN resolutions relating to it ;

* (Signed in 1995 and granting - among others - preferential conditions for the import of Israeli products in Europe).

The suspension of the Agreement was voted by the European Parliament on April 10, 2002 but has gone unheeded to this day.