STRASBOURG (EJP)---Belgian MEP Véronique De Keyser has told a group of her peers how she feels like she wants to “strangle” Israeli diplomats who discuss Israel’s security.

Addressing a European Left Group hearing on the situation of Palestinian political prisoners last week, De Keyser deplored the “passivity” of the European Parliament on the Palestinian issue, and hailed the “moderation and maturity” of the Palestinians.

“I wonder how they are able to limit violence in the territories given the background,” the Socialist politician said. “If the Israeli ambassador comes in the future to speak of Israel’s security, I feel like I want to strangle him.”

The event, held at the parliament last Wednesday, formed part of a campaign calling for the release of Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian politician serving a life sentence in Israel for his role in several terrorist attacks.

Negotiations ignored

At the meeting the wife of Barghouti, a leader of the Fatah opposition party, called on the European Union to lift the embargo against direct aid to the Palestinians and to recognise the new national unity government.

“The international community has deplored Hamas’s victory (in last year’s election) but did nothing to reinforce Fatah,” Fadwa Barghouti said.

Ignoring the much-publicised negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinians over the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, she claimed the Palestinians were ready to exchange in exchange Shalit for Palestinian prisoners “but Israel refuses.”

French MEP Francis Wurtz, who chairs the European United Left group, announced that the appeal for the EU to recognize the Palestinian national unity government has been signed so far by some sixty members of the European parliament.

De Keyser also used the opportunity to call on the German EU presidency “to make a difference in its positions between the Holocaust against the Jews and the current policy of the State of Israel” and spoke out against what she called the “European and German culpability” on the Holocaust.

While stressing the horror of the Holocaust, she said: “One must wring the neck of the European and German culpability on the Shoah.”