EU Parliament VP Calls for Justice in Gaza

PRESS RELEASE, BY LUISA MORGANTINI
(GUE/NGL) Vice President of the European Parliament
Why is there no protest when a former US President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate is denied entry to Gaza?
20 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers have been killed, and in the Gaza Strip people continue to die. The International Community and EU must work for a cease-fire and an end to the siege. Rome, 17th April 2008
"While the Israeli Government continues its policy of isolation and collective punishment towards the Palestinian civil population in Gaza, it has also prevented to a former Head of State to visit the Gaza Strip. This unprecedented decision was adopted in the case of Jimmy Carter, former US President and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Carter has always declared himself a sincere supporter of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, based on the creation of two people and two states, and has denounced the policies of Apartheid.
Moreover, Carter was a mediator in the 1978 Camp David negotiations; the first agreement signed by Israel and an Arab State, Egypt. If this decision had been made by any other country, it would have provoked a real protest in the international media. Meanwhile, the situation in the Gaza Strip becomes more desperate every day: the International Community and the European Union must work for an immediate cease-fire and toward an end of all acts of violence. Once again, the price is paid by the civilian population.
Each military action that involves civilians, as was the case yesterday in the Gaza Strip, must be condemned in adherence to International Humanitarian Law.
In addition, essential services are nearing collapse due to a lack of fuel supplies. This is the result of Israel's April 9th decision to cease the fuel distribution to Gaza, although today the fuel supply only for the Gaza's only electric power station was reopened. In a press release yesterday, 8 UN Agencies denounced the fuel restrictions because they endanger the basic needs of the civil population. PMRS, one of the major NGO's providing health services in Gaza and the West Bank, has also launched an appeal regarding the immediate "humanitarian disaster" and is at risk of having to suspend all its activities. A statement by the Popular Committee against the Siege of Gaza (PCAS, part of the ongoing campaign in Gaza, www.freegaza.ps) says that more than 85 % of private vehicles and more then 65% of sanitary transport vehicles are unusable because of the lack of fuel.
Palestinians in Gaza are denied the most basic necessities and the possibility to lead a dignified life. Once again the Palestinian population is suffering from massive collective punishment, explicitly illegal under International law. Yesterday, Physicians for Human Rights, an Israeli NGO, and the Campaign for the end of the siege in Gaza (www.end-gaza-siege.ps) denounced the DCO's (Israeli Defence Coordination Office) umpteenth refusal to allow Palestinian medical patients to enter Israel or the West Bank for medical care and treatments. Since the siege started 133 Palestinians have died as a result of these kinds of refusals and today 1,562 patients are waiting to leave Gaza for urgent medical care.
On April 13th for the forth time Islam Alassouli, a 4 years old child from Khan Younis was not allowed to pass the Eretz crossing into Israel for a bone marrow transplant. He received no explanation for the refusal.
The kind of transplant needed by Islam is impossible in Gaza's hospitals: because of the total closures imposed by Israel, elaborate medical equipment is unavailable and even vital medicines are nowhere to be found.
The International Community and the European Union have no more excuses: they must intervene immediately, in a stronger and more effective way, for the immediate opening of all of Gaza's border crossings (according to the obligations of an occupying army under International Law), and for an immediate cease-fire by both sides.

The Iraqi Refugee Crisis

From today's EU Observer comes a substantial report on the refugee crisis:
Iraq and the EU: five years on
20.03.2008 - 09:21 CET By Renata Goldirova
It has been five years since the United States began its military operation dubbed 'Iraqi Freedom'. The war resulted in a deep rift in transatlantic relations, caused a split within the European Union and made Iraqis the single largest group seeking refuge in Europe.
[...] Some estimates suggest that up to one million Iraqis have been killed since 2003, while the financial burden amounts to some $9 billion for London and $845 billion for Washington. Former head of the IMF Joseph Stiglitz has recently estimated the cost to be as high as $3 trillion.

[...] According to fresh numbers released by the UN high commissioner for refugees earlier this week (18 March), asylum requests from Iraqis climbed to 38,286 in 2007, a sharp increase from the 19,375 claims in 2006.
A number of non-governmental organisations have therefore blamed the EU for not doing enough over a major refugee crisis, pointing to the fact that the treatment of Iraqis varies significantly from one member state to another.

For example, Sweden's reception facilities have been under huge pressure, as the Scandinavian country is the only one within the 27-nation bloc granting refugee status or other protection to almost all Iraqi asylum seekers. A total of 9,065 Iraqis applied for refugee status there in 2006, compared to 2,330 the previous year.

The EU "cannot continue to ignore one of the world's major displacement crises," says a statement of a group of eight NGOs, including Amnesty International and the European Council on Refugees and Exiles.

In general, it is estimated that six million people inside Iraq need urgent humanitarian assistance as a result of the conflict. Some 2.5 million are internally displaced, while an additional two million are hosted by neighbouring countries such as Syria and Jordan.
http://euobserver.com/9/25856/?rk=1

Liberty Lives in the EU!

Here are excerpts from two reports in today's EU Observer, with links for the full stories:
Internet providers don't have to name downloaders, says EU court
Telcos do not have to disclose the personal data of internet subscribers in civil cases (Photo: Johannes Jansson//norden.org)
29.01.2008 - 17:42 CET By Leigh Phillips
EU member states are not required to force internet service providers to hand over the names of file-sharers who distribute copyright material, Europe's top court ruled today (29 January).[…] "Community law does not require the member states, in order to ensure the effective protection of copyright, to lay down an obligation to disclose personal data in the context of civil proceedings," read the ruling.
http://euobserver.com/9/25559/?rk=1
EU to look into consumers' happiness
30.01.2008 - 08:52 CET By Elitsa Vucheva
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The European Commission is to present proposals on Thursday (31 January) aimed at evaluating how satisfied consumers are with the bloc's single market.
EU consumer protection commissioner Meglena Kuneva will unveil plans for a "Consumer Market Watch", consisting of two steps – monitoring of the market and analysis of the collected data.
The goal is to evaluate how effective the market is for the consumers, detect possible market failures and take corrective action if necessary, according to Ms Kuneva.
[…] On Thursday, Ms Kuneva will also present the first "scoreboard" gathering consumer data from the different member states and using five indicators to measure consumers' happiness: prices, complaints, switching rates (between different service providers), satisfaction and safety.
The commission scoreboard - seen by EUobserver - shows that the prices of some goods and services vary strongly in across member states.
Danish, Finnish, Swedish and Irish citizens pay the highest prices for food, while Bulgarians, Slovaks, Latvians and Romanians pay the lowest.
In addition, Bulgarians pay around €7/100 Kwh for electricity, while Italians pay around €17/100 Kwh. The price index does not take into account the differences of wages and living standards, however. [...]
http://euobserver.com/9/25561/?rk=1