TEL AVIV, Jan 30: A top EU official on Wednesday slammed Israel’s destruction of Palestinian civilian infrastructure as “totally unacceptable”, stressing that violence will not pave the way for an end to the bloodshed.
Jean Breteche, the European Commission representative to the West Bank and Gaza, compiled a list of EU-backed Palestinian projects destroyed by Israeli forces and which cost a total of more than 17 million euros.
He acknowledged that Israel had also suffered losses due to the 16-month Palestinian uprising against its occupation of large parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
But he said rather than establishing a commission, as Israel did this week, to assess the impact of the fighting on its economy, the best way out of the crisis was to tackle its root causes.
“Israel should live in security and prosperity but tension in the region takes place because international law is not being respected and half of the Palestinian territories are occupied by an extremely brutal army,” he said.
Breteche said the issue of Israel’s destruction of Palestinian civilian infrastructure was discussed on Monday at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels.
Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, whose country holds the revolving EU presidency, is to send a letter on the issue to his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres, added Breteche.
On Monday, EU foreign ministers called on both parties to “immediately and unconditionally” implement internationally approved plans for a ceasefire and measures to restore trust.
Their statement also underlined that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was still a partner to negotiate with and the elected president of the Palestinian people, while urging him to fight terrorism.
Breteche said that “the EU goal is to minimize the causes for conflict in order to recreate an environment that will lead to a resumption of talks”.
“With this in mind, we believe that Israel’s use of excessive violence and the continuation of its policy of destruction and collective punishment of the Palestinian population won’t favour re-establishing such an environment.”
SUICIDE BOMBER: A Palestinian suicide bomber from Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement injured two agents of the Israeli internal security service, Shin Beth, on Wednesday.
The attack came as Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer discussed the rapidly deteriorating situation with President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt.
The blast in northern Israel, which slightly wounded the two Israelis, came after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved measures to fortify occupied Al Quds following a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks.
That security perimeter would include Abu Dis, the Palestinian administrative area right on the edge of Al Quds, as well as Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
The attack, representing an upsurge of violence that Israeli defence experts expect to get much worse, occurred in the Arab Israeli town of Taibeh, 20 kilometres north of Tel Aviv, and close to the autonomous West Bank Palestinian town of Tulkarem, army radio said.
Israeli public radio reported that the Palestinian may have been an informer for Shin Beth who had been “turned” by the Palestinians.
A Fatah official in Tulkarem said the bomber had been acting for Fatah.
Israel has put its security forces on maximum alert in the wake of renewed suicide bombings in Tel Aviv and the holy city, especially along the Green Line dividing Israel from the West Bank, which it largely occupies.
WOMAN BOMBER: Palestinian police said they suspected that the Palestinian woman who blew herself up on Sunday, killing an elderly Israeli man, was a missing volunteer worker from the Red Crescent.
Israeli police believe the woman was the first ever woman Palestinian suicide bomber. However, they cannot rule out the possibility she was killed by a device she was trying to plant in a crowded shopping street at the start of the Israeli working week.
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