[CTRL] EU Grows Weary Of Israeli Nonsense

[William Shannon]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,477385,00.html EU ready to take hard line on Israel Ian Black in Brussels and Ewen MacAskill Tuesday April 24, 2001 The Guardian Israel is facing punitive measures from the EU because of hardening and widening opposition to its policies towards the Palestinians, diplomats said last night. Violence continued yesterday with a Palestinian boy killed at a funeral in Gaza and four injured in a car bomb explosion in Israel. EU member states, including Britain, are now actively debating changing their approach to the Jewish state, with decisions expected at two key foreign ministers' meetings next month. France is leading a campaign to suspend Israel's prized association agreement with the EU, which gives it preferential trade terms worth millions of dollars. A more likely result will be a crackdown on Israel's flouting of EU "rules of origin" under which goods produced in occupied territories have been illegally benefiting from duty free access. The EU is also likely to cold -shoulder Israeli attempts to secure enhanced cooperation in science and technology. In the latest in a series of signals that it cannot be business as usual with the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, Brussels last week issued an angry condemnation of Israeli attacks on both Syria and Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has insisted that the statement was one-sided, and warned that the EU is in danger of losing what little influence it has. Romano Prodi, the president of the European commission, and Chris Patten, external relations commissioner, are being targeted by Israel to persuade them to adopt a softer line. In the past Israel has been defended in the EU by traditional friends such as the Netherlands, Sweden and Britain, but it now has few defenders left, even in Germany, where public opinion wants to see action. The Belgian foreign minister, Louis Michel, yesterday met the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, in the West Bank town, Ramallah. Mr Michel, whose government is next in line for the European presidency, angered the Israeli government two months ago by threatening EU sanctions. In a significant development, Mr Arafat said afterwards: "I want to be very clear. We are against any operation targeting civilians, whether they are Israelis or Palestinians." Israeli army radio said it had been the first condemnation by the Palestinian leader since the uprising began in September. The Israeli government also took a tentative step towards renewing the peace process, but there was little optimism on either side. Mr Sharon's government yesterday said it was still considering a Jordanian-Egyptian peace plan under which Israel would lift its economic embargo of the West Bank and Gaza in return for the Palestinians ending their attacks on Israel and Jewish settlements. The 12-year-old Palestinian killed yesterday, Muhanad Muhareb, died at a funeral near the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. The funeral was of a Palestinian security man killed in fighting with the Israelis last week. Palestinian witnesses said that as the body was being lowered to the ground, Palestinian gunmen fired a 21-gun salute, prompting fire either from an Israeli army outpost or the Jewish settlement it was guarding. Fourteen other Palestinians were wounded. An Israel army spokesman said: "We had very heavy fire from the Palestinian side. There were exchanges of fire and we were forced to protect ourselves." Eyad Saadoni, a maths teacher, said mourners scattered in panic, seeking shelter in abandoned buildings. "I ran away about 100 metres," he said. "Then I sat near a wall, where some people were trying to take cover. Some of them were kneeling next to the grave. Others covered their heads with their hands. Then I saw the wounded child collapse." Israel suffered its third bombing in two days when a pipe bomb in a car exploded at an outdoor market in the town of Or Yehuda. A boy aged 12 and his sister, aged eight, were among the four injured. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical group that has taken little part in the uprising so far, claimed responsibility. Hamas, the militant Islamic group, said it carried out Sunday's suicide bombing at Kfar Saba in which an Israeli doctor was killed. Hamas said Imad Kamel al-Zbaidi, aged 18, a resident of the West Bank city of Nablus, was the bomber.