"Des observateurs ont indiqué que le Parlement européen est l'institution la plus critique d'Israël, même lorsque que les relations entre l'Union européenne et Israël ont connu des périodes de relative harmonie."
Israel’s ambassador tells EU Parliament: 'Soldiers were attacked by a crowd armed with iron bars and knives' , par Yossi Lempkowicz
"Members of the European Parliament almost unanimously condemned Israel's commando operation against a Gaza-bound flotilla and called for an “impartial international inquiry.”
Some, publicly using words such as "terrorism," "kidnapping," "revulsion," and even "obscene" to describe Israel's actions. said they expect the parliament’s plenary session to vote a “strong resolution” condemning the assault.
During a debate of the parliament’s foreign affairs Committee on Tuesday in Brussels, Israel’s ambassador to the EU, Ran Curiel, stressed that the convoy “was not a peaceful humanitarian mission, but a provocation that became a tragedy". He deplored the loss of human life, noting that the incident had left nine dead and fifty-five injured. The Israeli envoy showed MEPs video images indicating the violence with which some Israeli soldiers boarding the convoy ships had been met. They were "attacked by a crowd armed with iron bars and knives", he said.
Green French MEP Eva Joly, head of the development committee, who was a member of a European Parlaiement delegation that visited Gaza last week, responded heatedly to the video images presented, saying that "there is no guarantee as to the authenticity of the images shown to us, and this why there must be an international inquiry". She called for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and for Israel’s accession process to the OECD to be interrupted "until the inquiry outcome is known".
