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EU: Gaza and the West Bank

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Dykes, and agree with him that there must be movement on—indeed a freezing of—settlement activity. I also note, however, that he directed all his criticisms at Israel. To be fair, there must surely be movement on the other side as well. I remind your Lordships that European Sub-Committee C produced a report in July 2007 on the European Union’s role in the Middle East peace process, and concluded that the EU must now play, "““a more active and imaginative role in the search for peace in the Middle East””." So what role can be commended to the Minister? First, that the EU is by far the largest provider of aid to the Palestinians must surely give leverage. We should therefore continue and enhance our humanitarian aid. We should encourage President Abbas to work closely with Arab colleagues. Indeed, one of the positive features of the past few years, from 2002, has been greater engagement of Arab countries in the region, encouraging them to promote an internal reconciliation process that would allow the creation of a technocratic Government, probably under Salam Fayyad, in the Palestinian territories and an agreed date for elections for the Palestinian presidency and the PLC. There should be an attempt to give a widening mandate to President Abbas to negotiate with Israel on the basis of the quartet resolution. There should be preparation for the opening of border crossings between Gaza and Egypt, seeking to negotiate an international oversight and monitoring mission at the crossings, underwritten by Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Of course, the European Union is already very involved, but this should allow controlled movement of goods and people, and the co-ordination of the three main parties on anti-terrorism and anti-arms smuggling activity. We should build on progress in expanding the PA’s security capacities. I note that former Prime Minister Blair was in Jenin. Jenin is a model of that activity, which also occurs in Nablus and the Hebron area. Finally, the EU should support an economic package, including economically driven security arrangements, financial support, economic infrastructure and private business support, all in preparation for the conference to be hosted in London in December of this year. Time permits only those headings, but that is quite a massive agenda in itself. The stakes are high. I am convinced that the EU can play a most positive role, and hope that some of these suggestions can be furthered by my noble friend.