(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee Tuesday debated the situation in Gaza with Hughes Mingarelli, Managing Director in the EU foreign service for the Middle East, giving an overview of the current developments in Gaza.
During the debate British MEP, Amjad Bashir, criticised the chair of
the committee, Elmar Brok, for his pro-Israeli positions.
"I have never seen such an apologist as our president. He should be an emissary for Israel. But the President's role is to be neutral," he said referring to Brok who is a German politician.
"Right now we have a siege and once again thousands of people are dying in Palestine The solution is not to have a cease fire. The solution is a comprehensive solution to the problem. The only solution is a viable state of Palestine," said Bashir who belongs to the group of 'Europe for freedom and direct democracy.' "It is Israel that is preventing that happening for the last 65 years. Until that is stopped there can be no peace in the Middle East. In 1948 the UN passed a resolution to create two states one state has been created. The other one hasn't. Palestine must come into being," stressed Bashir.
Another British MEP Neena Gill said "it is outrageous that when you think the number of people have lost their lives in the last 13 days.
"What is the EU doing? What is the UN doing? Yes everybody is demanding a ceasefire. I agree with my colleague. We need to take stronger sanctions in order to make effective intervention," said Gill
who belongs to the Socialist Group.
Afzal Khan , also a British MEP, said "in the Israeli side you have the most powerful and sophisticated army and on the Palestinian side you have no army at all. And yet you look at the terrible death of civilians . It is appalling," he said.
"It is the Israeli army that is doing it. We cannot accept this situation getting worse day by day. We have a responsibility to stand up and ensure that there is peace there, " said Khan, who belongs to the Socialist group.
He noted that the Palestinian side has a lack of confidence in the US and stressed that "we the EU have much credibility." He also urged the involvement of Turkey to influence Hamas for a settlement of the Palestine question.
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