It’s time of the year to take some rest, so I’ll be away from my blog for a month or so. If I get a chance in between I’ll try to post something.

This is a true, amazing and shocking firsthand story that details the ‘welcoming package’ waiting for you at Israeli borders. (Try to imagine how Palestinians are treated at checkpoints!!!)

Stolen days in Israel

This is a long and mostly detailed rendition of what happened to me after my arrival in Tel Aviv. I would like to submit this information to the media and any NGOs or organizations that can use the information. By not doing anything I feel I will have more stolen from me. I hope you reading this can also use the information, submit it to the media, etc. I give you permission to do so, just do not use my full name and keep the integrity of the story. It would help me if you could spread this information around, submit it to organizations and the media and would make it easier for me.

I never anticipated these problems. I asked so many people, so many questions. When I entered Israel I thought I might be questioned because of my name but not what ended up happening. When I approached the non-Israel passport stand, the woman asked me my father’s name, probably because I was born in Iran that questions started coming. When I said Mohammad Reza I was pretty sure I would be questioned further. She asked me my grandfather’s name, I didn’t know, I didn’t have relations with him. She told me to stand on the side of the counter. I waited. Then I was taken to an office to be questioned. They asked me why I was coming there, where I was coming from, what I was doing there, who I knew here, how I knew them, did I have family here, what I studied, where I studied, my contact info, my friends’ contact info. Then I was asked to wait in this room. I was then questioned again, this time more aggressively. The woman again asked me the same questions, asked me about my flights, then she saw my papers, some of my papers were about volunteering in Nablus. The woman accused me of lying, saying I wanted to volunteer instead of sight see or visit friends. She wanted me to log into my email so she could go through it because she didn’t believe me and said since I emailed my friend that she wanted to see. I refused, saying I couldn’t “as an American.” This meant nothing here.

You mean nothing here. This was then followed by her taking my papers then me waiting more. Then I was taken to find my bag, they then went through all my things, x-rayed them, wiped them down for explosives, everything. They kept questioning me, the same questions, different people. Emptied my bags, excavated them. I was padded down, or frisked as well. They also x-rayed my jacket and shoes. Then after this humiliation I was made to wait again. I was told I wasn’t getting into Israel. I asked them why and the woman said that I lied, when I asked what I lied about she just told me to sit in the room. There’s a high arrogance about them. As if I was being let into the Garden of Eden or something. They are also extremely ignorant. For people with such official positions, I feel they barely had a high school degree. The women at the passport counters just looked like housewives. It is like a military state, where everyone has to run it, with no training except to intimidate and be aggressive. My mistake is to assume good, being naïve, being honest and open.

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No new posts here for some time now because been busy in preparing for my annual vacation with my family on one side and on the other side dumped the old Palestine Blogs aggregator platform and switched back to Drupal because the old one was pain-in-the-neck. That was not an easy task and took some time to clean up the old list of aggregated blogs and putting the rest back on the new one. I hope you like it.

Once that was over, I thought of giving the members some new badges, so last night had a chance to exercise a little on photoshop and came up with few new ones. Here they are (if you like to use any - or more - you can grab the code from http://palestineblogs.net/link-to-us):

and grunge ones:

Check out all the badges on http://palestineblogs.net/link-to-us

Here are two stories from two very bright young ladies from Gaza, Occupied Palestine.

The first one is a moving clip taken from an Arabic TV show where she tells her story.

Watching it made me and my family cry, so I decided to translate it and share it with you. (Hat tip: Rasheed)

Code for embedding this video available here:

- http://blip.tv/file/1000408
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d96Ol3kAzU
- http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5tevj_story-of-little-girl-from-gaza_news

The second touching story is from Hanen Zaqout who is only 16. This is her letter to the world:

A Girl from Gaza Identified by her ID

We all spend a lifetime trying to figure out what makes someone who they are, and what defines them. Is it their characteristics, appearances, or behaviors? It may be a combination of all…for regular people. But for people who come from where I come from, figuring out who they are is not a choice for them. I come from Gaza City in Palestine, where surviving each day is a huge struggle for all Gazans. Leaving Gaza was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, partly because I miss my old life, and partly it is the guilt kicking in.

When I left Gaza, I had to go through this checkpoint. It’s not ANY checkpoint. It is the Erez Checkpoint and its there to imprison the people of Gaza because as soon as the Israeli soldiers see a Gaza ID, that person is automatically considered an utter terrorist. Without knowing who they are, without any idea whatsoever about those people, they decide that they are criminals. Who has the right to take a person’s identity from them? Or to judge them based on a piece of paper or nationality? How can they take away people’s choice of trying to figure out who they really are? I don’t know… but as I was walking through that long tunnel in that checkpoint, I realized that no matter what I do, no one will accept me for who I am. In that tunnel, they make no difference whether I am a terrorist or a person who is yearning for peace, not only for my people but also for the Israeli people.

I had the “privilege” to leave Gaza that others dream of having. Not because they don’t love Gaza, nor for the fun of it, but because it is so hard to live there. Home became something you want to escape from instead of being the place you can run to when life gets too hard. As soon as I was through that checkpoint, after being treated like an animal, after being “numbered” like baggage, checked out by all the screening machines that never occurred to my mind that I would ever see them. I now live in Ramallah, which is only 2 hours away from Gaza. I left that exotic part of the world called Gaza; but still have it on my mind every second of the day, still influenced by my past there, and still motivated by its people’s strengths.

On the news, the talk about how Gaza has NO fuel, NO food, and even NO electricity; but the TV is just a source of information to pass on how people are suffering…does that mean that anyone outside Gaza understands what the people are really going through? No, they listen to that devastating news, ‘feel bad’ for the people going through it, and continue on with their lives like nothing happened. Maybe some people can pretend, but as for myself I can’t! This is the main reason I’m writing this for as much as I know that words can be inconsequential, they can also make a difference in many people’s lives.

I hate that I feel guilty every time I eat a piece of chocolate, knowing that a friend or a little child is craving one. I hate that when I’m bored I can open the TV or the computer and waste time, while my friends have nothing to do considering they have no electricity. I hate how I can go wherever I want, whenever I want, even outside Ramallah, while my friends are stuck at home because they have no fuel to even go around Gaza city! I hate buying new clothes, because my friends can’t. I hate that I’m absolutely and utterly helpless.

However in Gaza, regardless of the situation, you always find love and hope, you find people struggling for their lives. A mother trying to put a smile on her child’s face, a father trying to get the strength to protect his child’s little body from a missile. In Gaza you find those mixed feelings between love and hatred, between hope and despair, between frustration and satisfaction. In Gaza, you find people smiling when they cross the borders, even when it takes them hours and even days to cross. In Gaza you find just what you need. You find home.

By: Haneen Zaqout
Grade 10
Friends School- Ramallah

Two eight year old girls have been killed by the IOF in the Gaza Strip in less than a week.

Aya Hamdan Al-Najjar (right) was killed by a rocket fired from an Israeli helicopter.

On June 11, eight year old Hadeel Al-Sumairi was killed when her home in south eastern Gaza was shelled by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). Less than a week earlier, eight year old Aya Hamdan Al-Najjar was killed by a rocket fired from an IOF helicopter. These two young girls had been living just a few kilometers apart, in villages in south eastern Gaza, near the border with Israel. Their violent deaths highlight both the continual dangers facing families who live anywhere near the Israeli border - and the grim and rising child death toll in the Gaza Strip. Sixty two children have been killed by IOF in the Gaza Strip this year - almost double the number of children who were killed by the IOF in Gaza during the whole of last year.[1]

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is still investigating the circumstances of Hadeel Al-Sumairi’s death. Her uncle, Amin Suleiman Ahmad Al-Sumairi, has given PCHR an eye-witness account of the IOF invasion of Al-Qarara village near Khan Yunis, where Hadeel was killed. “I was at home when I heard a huge explosion. I ran from my house and saw fire coming from the home of my brother, Abdul Karim” he told PCHR. “As I ran towards the house I could smell burning flesh.” The IOF had just fired two tank shells into Al-Qarara village, and both shells struck the house where Abdul Karim Al-Sumairi and his family lived. His daughter, Hadeel, was killed instantly, her small body dismembered.

Six days earlier, On June 5, Zahra Ibrahim Al-Najjar, was at her in home in nearby Khizaa village with her young daughter, Aya. “My daughter had finished school just one week earlier and was waiting for her friends to come and join her” says Zahra Al-Najjar. “At about 2pm I heard the sound of [Israeli] drones and helicopters. I went to the window to see what was happening, but I didn’t see anyone outside. I thought Aya was inside our building, or with a neighbour. Then there was a loud explosion.”

The helicopter had just fired a rocket, which, with pinpoint accuracy, hit eight year old Aya as she stood just three or four metres from her own house. Zahra Al-Najjar, who was struck in the head by shrapnel from the rocket, did not know her daughter had just been killed. It was the neighbours who found a small hand in the rubble outside. After collecting the other parts of Aya’s body, which were scattered over a distance of more than 150 metres, they then had the grim task of telling Zahra and her husband, Hamdan Hamdan Al-Najjar, that their daughter was dead.

Zahra and Hamdan Al-Najjar believe that Aya was deliberately targeted by the IOF in retaliation for the death of an Israeli civilian earlier the same day. The Israeli man was killed between 11-12 am, by mortar shells fired from inside the Gaza Strip that struck the Nir Oz kibbutz near south eastern Gaza. “The mortars [that killed the Israeli] had been fired at least two hours before Aya was killed” says Hamdan Al-Najjar. “But those mortars were not fired from here, there was no shooting in our village, and there was no-one outside our house except for my daughter. She was not carrying a gun and she did not fire a rocket. They wanted revenge for the death of the Israeli.”

Parents of other children that have been killed by the IOF in Gaza this year have also consistently alleged that their children were deliberately targeted by the IOF. On 20 May, twelve year Majde Ziyad Abu Oukal was killed in Jabalia, northern Gaza, by a missile fired from an IOF drone that dismembered him. His parents, Ziyad and Tahariya Abu Oukal, believe he was deliberately targeted in order to pressurize local parents to stop rockets being launched towards Israel.

The deliberate targeting of civilians is illegal under international human rights law, and constitutes a gross violation of human rights amounting to a war crime. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is investigating these allegations in depth, and this summer will publish its findings in a report on child killings committed by the Israeli Occupying Forces in the Gaza Strip.

Driving along the eastern border of the Gaza Strip is a sinister experience. In between villages like Al-Qarara and Khizaa are vast tracts of empty land and hundreds of boarded up and abandoned houses. The IOF make frequent incursions here, and local Palestinian villagers are fleeing in fear of their lives, and the lives of their children.

“The Israelis can see everything from their planes” says Hamdan Al-Najjar. “They could see Aya was alone outside - and they could see she was just a small child. When we finally saw [the remains of] our daughter, there was almost nothing left of her. We could not even bury her properly, because her body had been completely destroyed.” All that Aya’s parents have left of their daughter now is one small, grainy photograph.

[1] 34 children were killed by IOF in the Gaza Strip in 2007

Source: PCHR.

Last week, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem released video clips showing masked Jewish settlers ganging up on and severely beating elderly Palestinian peasants near the town of Yatta, southwest of Hebron. At least three Palestinians were wounded in the unprovoked assault, including a man and his wife, both in their early sixties.

The latest act of settler terror was not an isolated incident, as official Israeli spokespersons would often claim. It represents a disturbing and persistent phenomenon as young and usually heavily armed settlers continue to attack Palestinian farmers, peasants and shepherds and vandalize their property in an effort to drive them away from their lands and villages.

We who live in the West Bank know too well what it means to live next to a Jewish settlement. It means constant harassment, unending vandalism and perpetual terrorism, both psychological and physical.

What is even more disturbing is the often brazen collusion between the army and the settlers. Ask any conscientious Israeli or Palestinian and he or she will tell you that the settlers couldn’t do what they are doing without at least a “yellow light” from the government and army.

Israel claims to be a state where the rule of law prevails. However, it is abundantly clear that when it comes to settler savagery in particular, and Israel’s overall violations of Palestinian rights in general, the rule of law is suspended.

For example, when a Palestinian files a complaint against settlers, he or she is asked to produce nearly impossible evidence, like the names of the perpetrators, their identity card numbers and their places of residence. Eventually, the complaint is registered against “anonymous” and consigned to oblivion. Such was the fate of thousands of complaints filed by desperate Palestinians seeking redress in Israeli courts.

And whenever serious physical damage to Palestinian property occurs, as happens often, the Israeli police challenge the Palestinian victims to prove beyond doubt that the damage was done by Jews and not self-inflicted. In other words, Jews can do no harm and settlers are innocent even if proven guilty.

The routine and nearly daily attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians and their property throughout the West Bank are not merely mundane acts of vandalism by rogue elements within the settler population. On the contrary, they are part of a larger and well-devised plan aimed at driving Palestinians away from their villages and hamlets and lands in order to make more room for Jewish settlement expansion. It is part and parcel of Israel’s ethnic cleansing schemes against non-Jews in Palestine.

Besides, it is well known that whenever a terrorist settler is detained, and this happens rarely, dozens of politicians, Knesset members, retired army commanders and of course, rabbis, are mobilized to free “an innocent Jew whose only guilt is defending Jewish rights and showing loyalty to the Land of Israel.”

This proves, if any proof were needed, that the entire Israeli Jewish society is accomplice and guilty in this shame, not only by keeping silent but also by always covering up for settler crimes.

To be sure, there are some Israeli Jewish and international groups, such as B’Tselem, the Christian Peace-making Teams (CPT) and the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) that monitor settler crimes against Palestinians. On this occasion and on behalf of the Palestinian people, I would like to salute these conscientious people and thank them for their dedication and laborious efforts on behalf of humanity and justice.

Nonetheless, settler crimes in the West Bank are so rampant and pervasive that greater efforts are required to monitor and expose them, especially in light of the obvious collusion between the occupation army and the settlers.

Hence, young men and women from around the world including Jews, Christians and Muslims and others, are encouraged to come to the West Bank to be a voice for the voiceless and lend a helping hand to those helpless Palestinians for whom daily life has become a formidable challenge due to settler harassment, vandalism and terrorism.

In addition to physical assaults on Palestinian villagers, settler terrorists routinely burn down fields, orchards and olive groves, often in full view of Israeli soldiers who look on nonchalantly, if not satisfactorily. Moreover, the settlers close Palestinian roads, even roads to one’s home, break water pipes, power and telephone cables. They also often throw poisonous or contaminated substances in Palestinian water wells.

Again, when Palestinians complain to the police, they are made to feel as if they were talking to a wall.

The criminal behavior of the settlers reflects a virulent ideological indoctrination whereby non-Jews in general and Palestinians in particular are viewed as “not fully human.”

For example, Rabbi Abraham Kook, the spiritual Godfather of religious Zionism, e.g. the settler movement, claimed that “the difference between a Jewish soul and souls of non-Jews is greater and deeper than the difference between a human soul and the souls of cattle.”

I know that some religious-Zionist pundits would indulge in all sorts of metaphorical interpretations to make Kook’s Jewish supremacy doctrine look innocuous.

However, the behavior of his followers in the West Bank should leave no doubt as to the virulent nature of his teachings.

Today, the vast majority of settlers in the West Bank believe that non-Jews living in Israel-Palestine ought to be either exterminated, enslaved or expelled. To enforce their racist ideas, prominent rabbis often cite the most extremist biblical and Talmudic passages pertaining to treatment of non-Jews living among Jews.

A few months ago, a settler leader in the Hebron region told me, “you have to choose between death, enslavement and expulsion from the Land of Israel.”

Obviously, with such a mindset, there can be no peace and coexistence between Jews, Muslims and Christians in the Holy Land.

Indeed, how can you coexist, let alone coexist amicably, with someone who believes that you are not equal to him and that God created you to be enslaved by him as a wood-hewer or water-carrier?

Finally, a few words to the Israeli government. During the Nazi era, the German authorities gave Nazi vigilantes, such as the Hitler Youth organization, free rein to attack Jews and their property. Now, you are effectively doing the same by giving these settler hoodlums a free rein to terrorize and assault innocent Palestinians. So, take note of what you are doing.

About the author: Khalid Amayreh continues to work as a journalist. He lives with his family in the Occupied Palestinian town of Dura with his wife and family. He may be contacted at amayreh@p-ol.com
Reprinted with permission of the author.

On the 16th June, the European Union will be discussing the possible upgrading of relations with Israel. Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayad, already raised Palestinians concern about this issue in his letter to EU. Your support is needed.

For details of your representative please follow this link:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public.do?language=EN

Dear Madam / Sir,

I am writing to you now in order to express my profound concern about the possible upgrade of relations between the European Union and Israel and urge you to advocate for its rejection within the EU.

Israel’s ongoing systematic violation of Palestinian human rights, its flaunting of both its international obligations and international law is well documented, as is its violation of commitments to the EU itself.

As I understand it, under its ‘European Neighbourhood Policy’, the EU offers to neighbouring nations opportunities for political and economic co-operation. In turn, the EU expects these neighbouring states to respect and abide by EU values and practices, particularly those related to human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. In the case of Israel, I am concerned that the EU may be offering opportunities for social and economic cooperation and integration, but abandoning its expectation that Israel will respect and practice the central principles of human rights and international law.

Israel has consistently and flagrantly denied the call for Palestinian national and individual rights, violated international law, defied even the most basic guidelines of the Road Map as discussed at the Annapolis summit in November 2007, and failed to uphold it obligations to the EU under the Barcelona Process. Let me give some specifics:

- Israel has embarked on a siege of the Gaza Strip that has resulted in the denial of medical access, shortages of food, fuel and electricity and stands as a grave act of collective punishment. This siege has been imposed amidst Israeli attacks on Gaza which have shown clear disregard for civilian lives. Water has been severely restricted and polluted in the Gaza Strip, with the Mediterranean now receiving 50 million litres of sewage per day because Gazans have no alternative.

- Israel has continued construction in more than 100 of its illegal settlements in the West Bank and throughout so-called “Greater Jerusalem”

- In the last six months, Israel has issued a call for bids on the construction of 847 new housing units in settlements throughout the West Bank and 1,300 units in East (Palestinian) Jerusalem

- In the last six months, Israel has demolished more than 185 Palestinian structures, including 85 homes

- Israel continues to operate over 600 checkpoints, roadblocks, and other physical barriers to the movement of the Palestinian population.

- Israel has still not complied with the 2004 ruling of the International Court of Justice that determined that it must stop construction of the Wall, remove those parts already built, and provide reparations

- Through a series of restrictions, Israel has consistently hindered implementation of the Interim Association Agreement concluded between the EU and the PLO on behalf of the PNA

- Israel is in direct violation of its Association Agreement with the EU regarding products produced by its illegal settlements. Despite the Association Agreement, Israel continues to export products to the EU as if they were manufactured and/or wholly obtained within Israel and to refund settlement businesses, using illegal subsidies, for import taxes paid by these settlement-based businesses in their export to the EU.

In light of Israel’s systematic breach of European Union, international, and human rights obligations, agreements and laws, the EU’s possible upgrade of its relationship with Israel can only be viewed as a reward to unlawful behaviour. Israel will certainly understand this upgrade as not just a condoning of its behaviour, but as a complete absence of consequences for its illegal and unethical policies and actions.

Moreover, by upgrading its relationship with Israel, the EU would be discarding a key incentive to Israel in proceeding with a just peace process. The EU has a vital opportunity here to play an active role in encouraging a just peace in the region; not by improving its relationship with Israel regardless of its violation of international law, but as a reward for its compliance with international and human rights law and EU agreements.

There is a great need for accountability at this critical juncture in EU-Israel relations. It is imperative that the EU make clear to Israel that the key to improving their relationship lies in embracing and implementing fully the goals and values of Europeans.

I thank you in advance for urging the EU to uphold fair, consistent and objective standards in its dealings with neighbour states and to decide against the upgrade of its relationship with Israel until it abides by international and human rights law and all EU agreements.

Sincerely,

Warning: Parental Guidance Suggested!

June 13 2008 - A young man from Bilin was shot with live rounds during the weekly Bilin Protest. Ibrahim Burnat who was shot in his right thigh was taken directly to Sheik Zaid Hospital in Ramallah and was described by doctors as being in critical condition. Ibrahim posed no threat to Israeli soldiers who shot him with live rounds simply for attempting to scale the Apartheid Wall as a symbolic gesture against the ongoing illegal occupation.

Here is the video:

Spread the word. Get the code from here:

- http://blip.tv/file/992275
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF1ibN40FJE (God knows how long it will stay on YouTube before some Zionist flag it to be removed like the previous video)
- http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5ruot_iof-shoot-live-ammunition-on-peacef_news
Read the rest of this entry »

Guess who?

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the United States of America is The Worlds Worst Prison State:

“In 2004, nearly 7 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at yearend 2004 — 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults.” - U.S. Department of Justice
Source: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/correct.htm

NOTE: It’s far worse now in 2007.

Compared to the rest of the world: Source: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/correct.htm and World Prison Population List (sixth edition), International Centre for Prison Studies: http://www.kcl.ac.uk

The numbers are just as bad when considered as a Percent of Population - see below

Read more here:
http://www.libertyforlife.com/jail-police/prison_populaton.htm

The European Union is considering upgrading its relationship with Israel, including in the political and economic spheres, and the European Council will take a decision on these matter in its June 16th meeting.

Salam Fayad wrote the EU a letter of protest which is worth noting:

Palestinian National Authority

Prime Minister’s Office

27 May 2008

Re: Potential upgrade of EU-Israel relations

Your Excellency,

It has come to my attention that the European Union is contemplating upgrading its relationship with Israel, including in the political and economic spheres, and that the Council may take a decision on this matter in its June 16th meeting.

I am writing you to register my deep reservations concerning such an upgrade while Israel continues to systematically violate Palestinian human rights and flaunt its international obligations, including certain of its commitments to the EU.

Our understanding is that one of the principal rationales for the EU to extend political and economic co-operation to neighbouring third states under the European Neighbourhood Policy is to generate incentives for those third states to respect EU values, central among them human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Yet, what we fear may happen in the case of Israel is a decoupling of the incentive (i.e., economic integration) from the desired behaviour (i.e., respect for human rights).

In the months since Annapolis, we have continued to see a flagrant disregard on the part of Israel for Palestinian national and individual rights, in violation of international law and the Road Map. Construction has continued in at least 101 settlements (not incl. Jerusalem-area settlements). Similarly, Israeli authorities have issued tenders for 847 new housing units since Annapolis, as compared with 138 housing units tendered in the 11 months prior to Annapolis. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities demolished at least 185 Palestinian structures, including 85 residential structures, in the first four months after Annapolis. The number of checkpoints, roadblocks and other physical barriers to movement now exceeds 600. And, of course, Israel has yet to comply with the 2004 ruling of the International Court of Justice, which held that the settlements and the Wall that are built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) are illegal, and which requires Israel to stop constructing the Wall, remove those parts already built and provide reparations.

All this aside, despite its obligations under the Barcelona Process, Israel continues, through a myriad of restrictions, to hamper implementation of the Interim Association Agreement concluded between the EU and the PLO on behalf of the PNA. Moreover, Israel continues to breach its own Association Agreement and EU directives regarding settlement products by allowing these products to be exported to the EU as if they were manufactured and/or wholly obtained in Israel and to refund settlement businesses (through illegal subsidies) for any import taxes paid by these businesses in their export to the EU.

At Annapolis, we agreed, in accordance with the Road Map, that the United States, on behalf of the Quartet, would head a trilateral mechanism to monitor each party’s performance of its Road Map obligations. We need to see that this mechanism is not a vacuous one and that it leads to concrete results.

Moreover, we are now at the halfway point between the resumption of permanent status negotiations at Annapolis and the end of 2008, by which time we are expected to reach an agreement to resolve all outstanding issues to end the decades-long conflict. The time is therefore most opportune for the EU to act on this matter.

If the EU were to upgrade its relationship with Israel at this juncture, in view of Israel’s systematic breach of legal obligations and agreements, Palestinians could only view it as rewarding unlawful behaviour - and Israel could only interpret it to mean that such behaviour and EU calls to stop it, have no consequences. Furthermore, the EU would be depriving itself of an important tool to push the peace process in the right direction, and jeopardizing its ability to play the active political role this region needs and that we, Palestinians, expect and support.

Now is the time for the EU to convey to its friend, Israel, that the key to strengthening its ties with the EU is to demonstrate, by way of action, that it indeed shares and embraces the goals and values of Europeans.

Now is the time for the EU to demonstrate to its Palestinian friends and other friends in the region the seriousness with which it views the principled position it has taken in the peace process.

Now - more than ever - is the time for the EU to act on the principled position that it reaffirmed again today that Israeli settlement activity “anywhere in the [OPT], including East Jerusalem, is illegal” and “threatens the viability of an agreed two-state solution”.

I should note further that we do not consider the resumption or indeed the upgrade of the EU’s relations with the PNA as an appropriate substitute for principled action in the case of the EU’s relations with Israel. The test, as we understand it, is not, and should not be, a relative one. We therefore urge the EU to uphold fair, consistent and objective standards in its dealings with all its neighbours.

I cannot overstate the need for accountability at this juncture. Whatever credibility and hope the peace process may have enjoyed at Annapolis is fast fading, as is the viability of an agreed two-state solution.

Therefore, I strongly urge the EU to decide against the upgrade of its relations with Israel until such time as Israel abides by international and human rights laws, including by freezing all settlement activity, and allows the Palestinian people to enjoy the same neighbourly relations with the EU as other nations in the region.

Please accept, your Excellency, the expression of my highest consideration.

Sincerely,

Salam Fayyad