D’Alema: “Humanitarian collapse should be avoided in the Palestinian territories “

VIENNA – Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema has launched an appeal in Vienna, before the start of work by the 25 foreign ministers of the EU, to avoid “the risk of a humanitarian collapse in the Palestinian territories”.

Of course, helping the Palestinians, D’Alema pointed out, does not mean “favoring the Hamas government” that “for known reasons cannot be considered an interlocutor”.

Also because, the Italian foreign minister noted, the attitude of the Hamas government “does not respond to the prevailing feelings of the Palestinian population”.

D’Alema added that Palestinian President Abu Mazen “seeks to leverage on the will to peace that exists in the majority of the Palestinian people” and reiterated that the lack of humanitarian aid in the territories would have “negative effects”: on the one hand it would induce the belief that democracy “brings trouble and not positive developments” and on the other hand it would allow only fundamentalist groups to have resources.

The foreign minister reported that the European Union approved on the first day of the meeting of the Council of Ministers the mechanism studied by the Commission to raise funds and resources in the Palestinian territories for humanitarian and assistance purposes.

If the Palestinian population does not receive aid, the holder of the foreign ministry emphasized, it would be “unjust and unacceptable”. And, moreover, we would risk a “radicalization and destabilization” of the situation with effects “contrary to the prospect of peace and security”.

May 28, 2006