Letter sent to Mrs Mogherini and Ambassadors concerning the Protection of Healthcare Personnel,Vehicles and Medical Structures in Gaza and the last United Nations report suggesting that Israel committed crimes against humanity in responding to 2018 protests in Gaza
Stop the demolition of Kahn Al-Ahmar school
Brussels, 25 April 2018. MEPs release a statement to urge the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the European Union to urgently request that the Israeli authorities lift the threat of demolition against the school in the bedouin village of Khan Al-Ahmar.
“On Wednesday 24 April, the Israeli High Court will decide whether Khan Al-Ahmar village’s school, located 25 kilometres outside Jerusalem, will be destroyed.
This small Bedouin village is located between Jerusalem and Jericho, in the narrowest piece of land in the West Bank. Israeli authorities have been harrassing the inhabitants of Khan al Ahmar for decades, in order to pressurise them to leave, thereby removing a barrier to Israeli settlement on Bedouin land, and effectively cut demographically the West Bank in two pieces.
The school, built out of tyres and mud, is crucial for the education of the children in the village, and particularly the girls. Before the school was built children had to walk 15 miles to access the nearest school. Girls usually did not go to school at all.
As well as proving vital education, the school also plays a vital role in the social life of the village, as Medical Aid is organised within it, and there are also adult education classes available for parents and the wider community.
As Members of the European Parliament, we stand in solidarity with Khan Al-Ahmar, and we urge our High Representative for Foreign Policy, Federica Mogherini, to urgently request that the Israeli authorities lift the threat of demolition.
We should never forget that education is a Sustainable Development Goal, vital to ending poverty and for promoting global citizenship.”
Martina Anderson (GUE, Ireland)
Maria Arena (S&D, Belgium)
Margrete Auken (Greens, Danemark)
Brando Benifiei (S&D, Italy)
Izaskun Bilbao Barandica (ALDE, Spain)
Lynn Boylan (GUE, Ireland)
Matt Carthy (GUE, Ireland)
Nessa Childers (S&D, Ireland)
Javier Couso Permuy (GUE, Spain)
Jill Evans (Greens, Wales)
Tanja Fajon (S&D, Slovenia)
Eleonora Forenza (GUE, Italy)
Ana Gomas (S&D, Portugal)
Eva Joly (Greens, France)
Wajid Khan (S&D, UK)
Jude Kirton-Darling (S&D, UK)
Patrick Le Hyaric (GUE, France)
Edouard Martin (S&D, France)
Ana Miranda (Greens, Spain)
Javier Nart (ALDE, Spain)
Liadh Ni Riada (GUE, Ireland)
Luke Ming Flanagan (GUE, Ireland)
Soraya Post (S&D, Sweden)
Alyn Smith (Greens, UK)
Barbara Spinelli (GUE, Italy)
Bart Staes (Greens, Belgium)
Neoklis Sylkiotis (GUE, Cyprus)
Keith Taylor (Greens, UK)
Ernest Urtasun (Greens, Spain)
Ivo Vajgl (ALDE, Slovenia)
Bodil Valero (Greens, Sweden)
Angela Vallina De La Noval (GUE, Spain)
Hilde Vautmas (ALDE, Belgium)
Miguel Viegas (GUE, Portugal)
Julie Ward (S&D, UK)
Seventy-three MEPs voice concern over Israeli participation in EU R&D programme
Brussels 14/07/2015
Seventy-three MEPs from different political groups in the European Parliament have addressed a letter to the High Representative of the European Union, Federica Mogherini, and Mr Robert Jan Smits, Director-General for Research and Innovation at the European Commission, regarding Israeli participation in the new Horizon 2020 programme.
Initiated by Irish GUE/NGL MEP Martina Anderson, the letter (in attachment) was drafted in consultation with several European civil society and Palestinian human rights organisations regarding EU support to Israeli military companies through Horizon 2020.
Martina Anderson said: “These organisations had voiced their concerns about possible funding through Horizon 2020 to Israeli military company Elbit Systems and other Israeli companies involved in the illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territories. Such companies are deeply complicit in Israeli military aggressions against the Palestinian people.
“In the previous EU Research Programme, FP7 (2007-2013), Elbit Systems and Israeli Airspace Industries participated in projects worth €393,600,149; a number of them were projects to further develop drone capacity.
“Funding for projects that include Israeli corporations involved in the ‘homeland security’ framework of the settlements risks undermining the guidance to private business issued by more than 20 member states that warn against economic ties that benefit the settlements.”
Ms Anderson concluded: “I believe it is our duty to ensure that EU taxpayer’s money is spent on projects that respect the EU’s commitment to upholding and promoting international law and is consistent with the EU’s position of non-recognition of settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territories.”
