The Middle East summit meeting called in November 2007 in the USA by the Bush Administration is unfortunately taking place on the background of a strengthening of rightwing forces such as President Bush and the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. By refusing to recognize and by imposing sanctions on the democratically elected Palestinian government, they and other Western countries - except the Norwegian government - have contributed to promoting a split on the Palestinian side: between Fatah and Hamas and thereby of the new Palestinian Unity Government set up in March this year, and of the Palestinian territories. Rightwing/pro-Israeli forces are clearly in a position to be able to take advantage of this weakening of the Palestinian leadership.

There is a huge possibility that the summit meeting in the USA will end in failure. If there are no tangible results of the meeting – a timetable for the implementation of a just solution to the conflict -, the consequences may well be a further destabilization of the situation in the West Bank and Gaza leading to increasing violence.

A strengthening of the role of Palestinian left forces is clearly needed. Therefore we, the NELF parties of this meeting, support them in their proposal for a third alternative able to reunify the whole Palestinian society and formulate a different agenda for the forthcoming international conference.

The representatives of European left parties at NELF XXXII meeting wish to confirm our conviction of the need for a just, final and all-inclusive solution to the conflict – also as a precondition for resolving other conflicts in the Middle East region. This solution should be based on the UN resolutions in this issue, resolutions 194, 242 and 338. At present Israeli occupation of the West Bank is being converted into a de-facto colonization of the area by extending the Wall and the settlements, and seizing the water and land resources of the area. Thereby destroying the prospect of a Palestinian state. This must stop.

A complete withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories to the 1967 borders should take place as fast as possible to open up for the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. This is a necessary precondition for a lasting peace to the benefit of the Palestinian as well as the Israeli population.

Israeli occupation and colonization of the Palestinian territories, as well as the economic strangling of Gaza, is causing huge violations of human rights as well as the utter destitution of the Palestinian people.  We call upon the EU and the European governments to introduce a policy of economic sanctions of the Israeli Government and a boycott of settlement products, as long as it does not observe international human rights standards and implement the UN resolutions in ending the illegal occupation. An important step should be a suspension of the EU-Israel Trade Agreement.