David Parsons, May 23, 2003

JERUSALEM - After boycotting visits to Israel for nearly three years, a special European Parliament delegation toured the country this week, and one Dutch Christian member says it was not a moment too soon.

EP member Rijk van Damm of the Netherlands was one of nine members of the legislative body's Permanent Delegation for Relations with Israel who arrived for an official visit on Saturday evening, just as a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings began.

Van Damm told ICEJ News that the delegation's absence for so long had contributed to the deterioration in relations between the European Union and Israel, and that its visit amid a spate of terror attacks had deeply impacted its members, even those who share the EU's consensus pro-Palestinian view.

"Most of my colleagues in the European Parliament have accepted the Palestinian narrative of events here," lamented van Damm, "and the media reporting in Europe only adds to the bias against Israel."

Nonetheless he expressed hope that his delegation's visit would contribute to mending the EU-Israel relationship so strained after more than two-and-a-half years of the violent Palestinian intifada.

Indeed, the delegation was unnerved by the rash of five bombings in 48 hours and issued several condemnations of terrorism before departing on Wednesday.

"There is no excuse for terror attacks," said delegation leader Willi Goerlach of Germany at the conclusion of a meeting with Israeli President Moshe Katsav.

He later reiterated the European Parliament's opposition to suicide attacks at a news conference, and said that there is no argument that can justify terrorism, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Belgium's Jan Dhaene, one of the delegation's two vice chairmen, confessed that he felt uneasy when walking through Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

As the official visit concluded, van Damm was hosted at a special reception in Jerusalem of Christian and Jewish supporters of Israel and briefed the gathering on their hectic but constructive agenda.

Besides Katsav, the delegation met with numerous other Israeli officials, including Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, the counterpart Knesset delegation for relations with the European Union led by MK Nomi Blumenthal, Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. Meetings were also scheduled on the Palestinian side, but van Damm was especially grateful that the itinerary included a rare meeting with council leaders for the Jewish communities in Judea/Samaria and Gaza - the so-called "settlers."

The Yesha council representatives explained the deep Jewish connection to these areas as the historic biblical heartland of ancient Israel, while also stressing that the settlements are not illegal under international law, as is widely touted.

Van Damm is sympathetic to these arguments, but noted that the erection of unauthorized "outposts" has made it harder to defend their cause in the EP.

Another hot topic during the visit was European funding of the Palestinian education system, especially textbooks rife with incitement against Jews and Israel, and lessons glorifying suicide bombers.

Goerlach conceded, "We are against propaganda that encourages hate, incitement, and xenophobia. We don't want it and we must a find a way to avoid it."

"We have fought to have transparency," said van Dam. Not one of the 245 million euros given to the Palestinian Authority each year should be spent in support of xenophobia, he said. "It must be spent toward peaceful coexistence."

Regarding the peace process, most of the EP delegation was anxious to see implementation of the "roadmap" to Palestinian statehood, but van Damm told ICEJ News he was not enamored with the plan.

"To me, the roadmap resembles trying to take an old, worn-out locomotive and placing it on the schedule of a modern, high-speed train," he said. If the Oslo process broke down on a longer timetable and under a better atmosphere, he explained, why should anyone expect success with a tighter time frame amid today's harsh reality of mistrust and unrelenting violence.

Van Damm knows his pro-Israel views are in the minority in the European Parliament, but he is optimistic that Israel's case can be made in Europe.

A member of a small conservative Christian party that holds three out of 31 Dutch seats in the EP, he says he was anxious to join the permanent delegation on relations with Israel and finally got on by swapping his seat on the EP's committee for Japan for the Israel seat held by Jean Marie LePen, the controversial leader of France's most far-right movement.

That exchange was a double blessing for Israel, van Damm jokes.

In recent years, van Damm has complained that the delegation kept postponing its required annual visit to Israel, blaming it on two successive chairmen that had anti-Israel sentiments. He says the new chairman from Germany has made a difference and the delegation can now play a more constructive role in improving relations.

The visit came at a time when Israel is blaming European leaders in particular for prolonging the terror by continuing to meet with discredited Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, thereby undermining new PA prime minister Mahmoud Abbas.

In response to this week's terror rampage, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his cabinet decided to refuse any appointments with visiting dignitaries if they meet with Arafat, and this boycott will get its first stern test early next week when French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin is to arrive for a two-day visit. Latest reports indicate Sharon will snub the French diplomat for meeting with Arafat, though the Israeli foreign minister may host de Villepin.

Meantime, there is renewed discussion on the question of whether Israel should officially apply for membership in the EU. Another pro-Israel member of van Damm's EP delegation, Marco Pannella of Italy, is ardently in favor of Israel joining the EU and has been urging Jerusalem to go ahead and put in a request, since it could take 10 years to gain full membership.

During his visit here, Pannella told reporters that support was growing in the European Parliament for Israel to join the EU.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi again endorsed the idea on Wednesday, saying, "In the future, Europe must include Israel." In a meeting with World Jewish Congress leaders, Berlusconi said, "We look on Israel as a European nation to all intents and purposes: Cultural, economic and political."

Berlusconi plans to visit Israel in the first week of June. "I will go to Israel to meet the prime minister [Ariel Sharon] and I will have no meetings with the Palestinian leadership," a WJC spokesman quoted Berlusconi as saying at the meeting.

Italy takes over the six-month rotating EU presidency in July, which could help further improve relations with Israel.

David Parsons is the Editor of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) News Service.