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Silvan Shalom clowns around with opposition MK Dalia Itzik
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| By Associated Press November 28, 2004 |
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Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom Sunday accused the European Union of bias in favor of the Palestinians, hours before leaving to attend a meeting of European and Arab foreign ministers in the Netherlands.
EU officials have said they see Yasser Arafat's death on Nov. 11 as providing a window of opportunity for renewed Mideast peace efforts.
European diplomats have stepped up contacts over the past two weeks. "I believe it shows that the EU would like to get involved in a peace process in the region," Shalom told a conference of overseas supporters of Israel in Jerusalem Sunday.
He repeated, however, Israel's accusation that the Europeans are not impartial brokers in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
"It can't be that they adopt in advance 100 percent of the demands of the Palestinian side if they want to become a mediator or facilitator between us and them," he said.
EU officials' response to that frequent accusation is that Israel wants to expand its lucrative trade with the expanding EU bloc of around 450 million consumers without giving the Europeans more of a voice in Mideast peacemaking.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana attended Arafat's funeral in the West Bank city of Ramallah and met with Palestinian leaders afterward.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw held talks with both sides last week, and Shalom is scheduled to meet Solana on the sidelines of the biannual meeting of EU foreign ministers and their counterparts from 10 eastern Mediterranean countries in The Hague, on Monday and Tuesday.
Talks on the EU's "Neighborhood Policy," seeking to draw nonmember neighbors closer to the union, have come up against Israeli objections to references in the draft agreement to the internationally backed "road map" peace plan, which calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, because it ignores Israeli objections, the officials said.
The Israelis are also balking at references to the role of the so-called Quartet of Mideast peacemakers, including Europe and Russia, and to clauses on human rights and weapons of mass destruction.
Israel refuses to confirm or deny reports of its nuclear weapons arsenal and has been regularly accused by human rights groups of abusing Palestinians.
The Hague meeting groups the 25 EU member states with nonmembers Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Turkey, what is known as the "Euromed" partnership.
The Foreign Ministry said that in addition to the plenary session, Sharon will hold bilateral meetings with the foreign ministers of several EU states and of Jordan, Turkey and Mauritania, which is attending as an observer.
Despite his criticisms, Shalom said Israel is eager to thaw its often chilly relationship with Europe.
"We are investing great efforts to promote out political and economic ties with the EU," he said Sunday. "Close relations with Europe are in our interest as well as theirs."
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