A few hundred people demonstrated on Wednesday near the European Parliament to demand an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and an end to arms exports to Israel, demands relayed by certain MEPs.
Organized by the France Palestine Solidarité association and a few dozen other associations, the Strasbourg demonstration was expected to bring together around 400 people, according to the police.
“Israel assassin, Europe complicit” chanted the demonstrators, coming from France, but also from Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, presenting signs on which one could read “Stop genocide” or even “We are all Palestinians.”
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“We have come to denounce the leaders of the European Union. They are putting a stop to Israel but, in fact, we are giving them the means to continue,” Gabriel Cardoen, one of the organizers of the anti-Israel mobilization, told AFP.
Inside the European Parliament, MEPs took part in a press conference at the initiative of the president of the human rights subcommittee, French ecologist Mounir Satouri, to demand in particular the suspension of the association agreement between the EU and Israel.
“There is no sacredness around this agreement: firstly it has not always existed, and then it is based on respect for human rights, which should push the European Council to suspend it until the bombs stop falling and humanitarian aid reaches the Palestinians.”
Referring to the establishment of a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon, Spanish Social Democratic MEP Hana Jalloul called for “another ceasefire in Palestine and in Gaza.”
“We are very concerned about the situation in Gaza. We also need to strengthen the[Office très controversé de secours et de travaux des Nations unies pour les réfugiés de Palestine dans le Proche-Orient, NDLR] UNRWA, despite the law that was adopted in the Knesset,” she said, while Israel banned this UN agency.
Irishman Barry Andrews (Renew), chairman of the Development Committee, called on European authorities to respect the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ex- Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“It is essential that the president of the commission, Ursula von der Leyen, unambiguously commits to respecting the statutes of the International Criminal Court. His silence on the subject undermines the credibility of the court,” he said.
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