EDM on the occupation of the Palestinian territories
EDM 1068
That this House notes the 43-year-long occupation of the Palestinian Territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem by Israel; further notes the presence of over 500,000 illegal Israeli settlers on occupied land and the refusal of the government of Israel to halt the construction of such settlements, or even to suspend construction to allow peace talks with the Palestinian leadership to progress; further notes the continuing siege of the Gaza Strip, which since June 2007 has prevented exports from Gaza and disrupted the import of humanitarian supplies and materials to rebuild homes, schools, hospitals and businesses destroyed by war; reaffirms its continued belief in a lasting peace settlement with a secure and independent state of Palestine alongside a secure and independent Israel; and calls on the Government, working with the EU, to remind Israel that the continuation of trade and other preferences under the EU-Israeli Association Agreement is dependent on it implementing its own obligations to respect the human rights of Palestinians and to uphold international law.
See also Robert Halfon’s wrecking amendment EDM:
leave out from `House’ to end and add `regrets that some link worldwide Islamist extremism to Israel’s action regarding Gaza; notes that the objective of Islamists worldwide is not a peaceful resolution to the Middle East, but Jihad, and an ideology that believes that Israel, and by extension, Jews, should be wiped off the map per se; cites President Ahmadinejad, who makes no distinction between the West Bank and Tel Aviv; further notes that when Ehud Barak offered almost everything to Yasir Arafat at Camp David in 2000, far from discouraging Islamists, it emboldened them; further notes that when Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, far from stopping extremists, it encouraged them, prompting many terrorist acts around the world; further regrets the Hamas coup against the more moderate Fatah movement in 2007; further regrets the 6,000 missiles fired by Islamists onto Israeli towns since the Gaza withdrawal; further regrets the blowing up of border crossings by Hamas, and the hijacking of aid convoys for their own purposes; acknowledges the one million tons of humanitarian supplies that have entered Gaza since 2009 alone from Israel, and the 15,000 tons of supplies entering Gaza every week; further notes finally that Egypt has also closed its border to Gaza; and therefore calls on the Government to reject the idea of moral equivalence between a democratic state subject to the rule of law, and terrorist groups who seek nothing of the kind.