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Posted on 01/13/2005 3:05:31 PM PST by jb6
JABALIYA REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip (AFP) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana joined new Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas's call for an end to rocket attacks on Israel as he toured a Hamas stronghold used as a launchpad by militants.
AFP Photo
On a visit to Gaza's impoverished Jabaliya refugee camp after talks with Abbas, Solana said he was "moved" by the plight of poverty-stricken residents and said the new leadership would do its utmost to revive the peace process.
Stumbling over rubble and viewing razed homes left by Israel's incursions into northern Gaza in a bid to stem rocket attacks last October, he described what he saw as "very dramatic" and later as "very moving" on his first visit to the camp.
"Rockets should not be fired. Point number one. But the amount of destruction is to my mind, now that you see it with your eyes... disproportionate. Those responsible are not the ones who have been punished," he said.
Palestinians looked bemused as the EU convoy roared through villages, kicking up dust, as children clambered into the ruins of bombed-out houses to watch.
Two children and two teachers from a UN-run school that Solana visited, had been killed in the recent incursion.
"You have opened a new page by the electoral process and you can be sure that the new president and the new structures are going to do the utmost to recuperate... the process of peace," Solana told Palestinian reporters.
Aides said he was on a fact-finding mission, to see the situation on the ground in Gaza to meet Palestinian MPs and civil society representatives.
"We have tried to establish mechanisms so the process can start the sooner the better," Solana said of his meetings with Abbas, and urged Israel to lift checkpoint closures to allow Palestinians to celebrate the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.
"I think the most important thing they can do is to lift those closures which are not absolutely necessary for security so that people can feel that something has changed. I think it would be a good gesture to create confidence and trust."
But he demanded an immediate end to the violence, which saw four Palestinian militants and an Israeli civilian killed Wednesday in the deadliest day since Abbas was elected three days ago.
"That type of thing has to stop," he said.
He hailed Abbas' election as a "propitious" start towards talks for a two-state solution and said the European Union (news - web sites) was ready to offer security assistance and economic aid in the wake of Israel's expected withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (news - web sites).
"We are the most important partner by far. It is difficult to see how you can do more politically," he told AFP, adding that the 25-member bloc had worked "very well" with Washington ahead of the Palestinian elections in the last month.
But Solana was reserved about what the European Union could do about Israel's controversial security barrier being built across the West Bank.
"You can be sure that the friends you have are going to help you," he said.
Despite media reports that he has met Hamas members in the past, Solana denied holding talks with the Islamist group -- on an EU blacklist of militant outfits.
"As long as Hamas is on the list of terrorist organisations there is no possibility of talking to them. If this changes, there is no reason why we should not talk to them," he said.
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Solana = socialist scum-filth.
Nobody in the MSM mentions that Arab countries could have solved the Palestinian camps problem long ago, but for their own reasons chose not to.
A "militant" refugee camp? That's a new one for the media.
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