Letter to High Representative Solana: do not cease funding the Palestinian Authority

May 27, 2006

Mr. Javier SOLANA

High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy,
Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union

Conseil de l’Union européenne Rue de la Loi, 175 1048 Bruxelles

Call Upon The EU Governments And Ministers Who Go To The Meeting On The 15th Of June For Rescinding

The Decision To Cease Funds For The PNA

We the undersigned, European organizations and individuals, call upon the governments of each EU country and their Foreign Ministers meeting, on June 15th, to rescind their decision to cease funds to the PA.

This decision is a collective punishment of the Palestinian people for exercising their democratic rights. Further more, it entrenches the ongoing violation of rights of people under occupation (4th Geneva Convention).

Both the OCHA report of April 2006 and the World Bank report of May 2006 have highlighted the humanitarian crisis, which is resulting from this attack on the political and national rights of the occupied Palestinian people. The economic blockade of the Occupied Territories by Israel, the US and EU must end.

It is now two years since the ICJ advisory ruling that the Israeli ‘separation Wall’ and settlements are illegal.

It is abhorrent that it is the occupied being punished while the occupier, flaunting international law, is allowed to continue violence and brutality unchecked.

We call for the EU to resume full funding to the PA.