Petition-1: EU Neighbourhood Policy

EU European Neighbourhood Policy programme.

Currently, nearly half of Israel's total external
trade is with the EU so this is potentially by
far the most important of these petitions!

Click for more about the ENP

Below is my suggested letter to the
Commissioner responsible for the ENP:

-------------start of petition letter------------------

Date: (fill in date)

From: (your name and address)

To:
Benita Ferrero-Waldner
DG External Relations /
European Neighbourhood Policy

Subject:
Israel's Association Agreement + ENP Membership

Dear Mrs. Ferrero-Waldner,
As a citizen of the European Union, I urge you to
terminate the EUs Association Agreement with Israel
and Israel's membership of the Neighbourhood Policy
programme with immediate effect.

The trigger event for this petition came
July-August 2006 with Israel's grotesquely savage
over-reaction to the minor border skirmishes with
Hamas/Islamic Jihad and with Hizbollah, and it soon
became clear that the wars on Gaza and Lebanon
were already planned, just waiting for suitable
excuses in order to proceed.

But Israel has a continuous history of unacceptable
behaviour:

-by its very nature, the Jewish State of Israel is a
state based on racism, xenophobia, ethnic cleansing,
exclusivity, the superiority of the Jews in a class
system bordering on apartheid, systematic legislation
to marginalise its Arab citizens (nearly 20% of the
population),

-its continued illegal and savagely brutal occupation
of the territories seized in 1967 and failing daily to
live up to its obligations as the occupying power under
the Geneva and other conventions
(examples: extra-judicial killings, soldiers deliberately
targeting civilians incl. women and children, collective
punishment of the civilian population, detention
without trial also of women and teenagers, detention
of elected representatives incl. members of parliament
and cabinet ministers, the building of separation
barriers mainly on occupied land, the continued
expansion of settlements on occupied land),

-its failure to comply with a large number of UN
Security Council resolutions.

The policies and general behaviour of Israel
are totally incompatible with and in complete
contradiction to the declared ideals and common
values both of the EU and of the ENP, and of
European nations generally:
Of universal human rights, the rule of law,
equality, non-discrimination on grounds of race,
colour, religion, nationality.

It is absurd for the EU to continue to classify Hamas,
fairly and democratically elected in January 2006 with
an absolute majority, as a "terrorist organisation",
refuse to deal with the Palestinians' legitimate
government and further increase the hardships of that
long-suffering people by adding economic sanctions to
political isolation, whilst at the same time continue
business-as-usual cordial relations at all levels,
economic, cultural, sporting, diplomatic, with Israel,
which has indisputably made state-terrorism its chosen
way of life since its creation in 1948.
It is Israel and not Hamas which needs to be put on
probation and through a programme of rehabilitation!

Hamas has indicated that a long truce (10-30 years)
might be possible, were Israel to withdraw fully to the
pre-1967 borders, a pragmatic offer reflecting
international law, and one which implicitly accepts
the existence of Israel.
In contrast, Israel, by its actions, those illegal "facts
on the ground", has all but wiped Palestine off the map
- I ask you, who are the terrorists?

I have of course read "The EU & the Middle East Peace
Process" FAQ 6 "Sanctions against Israel?" and remain
totally unconvinced.

In view of all of the above, I ask you how you can
justify continuing the Association Agreement and
membership of the European Neighbourhood Policy
with Israel. As a citizen of the EU, I am ashamed of
this hypocrisy and I know I am not alone in saying:
I have had enough!!

I urge you therefore once again to terminate those
agreements with immediate effect.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Thank you very much for your time,
Yours sincerely



..................................................
(your name etc)
(your email?)
(your website?)

-------------end of petition letter-------------------

Readers wishing to participate,
please proceed as follows:

Copy-paste the above petition letter, fill in
your personal details in the appropriate places,
amend the text to reflect your nationality/
geographical location etc, when you have finished
editing, save your new version.

NOTE:
My editor may be different to the one you are
using and the copy may look "messy" with broken
line-overflow, however, it should both email and
print OK, if in doubt, send an email of your
finished version to yourself first and check before
emailing or printing to the recipient.

Then either:

Click on the URL below

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/external_relations/feedback/question2.htm

(should this link not work, copy-paste URL
into a browser-window, and press Enter)

This will take you to the personal web-pages of
Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner, fill in the e-form,
copy-paste your letter into space provided
(I did a test run and the space appears big
enough not to truncate), and click SUBMIT.

or:

Print your version, sign it, and post it to:

Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner
DG External Relations
European Commission
B-1049 BRUSSELS
BELGIUM

And that's it, you have added your voice of
protest against Israel.

NOTE:
A real letter has a stronger presence and is
more difficult to ignore than an email, and
therefore has a better chance of being taken
seriously and replied to.
My own petition was sent as a letter.

If you do participate, I would appreciate you
telling me so, either by commenting below,
or via email on myspeak13@yahoo.com with
at least your name, city and country, and please
state whether you sent the petition as an email
or a letter, and, if emailing me, quoting no. 1
please, so I know which petition it was.

You agree to your details being used on this
website for inclusion in a possible list of
petitioners.

For the EUs ENP see:
http://ec.europa.eu/world/enp/

The EU & the ME Peace Process, FAQ 6,
referred to in petition:
6. Sanctions against Israel?
"The EUs policy is based on partnership and
cooperation, not exclusion. It is the EUs view that
maintaining relations with Israel is an important
contribution to the Middle East peace process and
that suspending the Association Agreement,
which is the contractual basis for EU-Israeli
relations, including political dialogue, trade
relations and cooperation activities, would not
make the Israeli authorities more responsive to
EU concerns. Keeping the lines of communication
open and trying to convince our interlocutors
is a better way forward."