EU quiet over Israeli land expropriation

In June, the European Commission announced details of a 60 million euros (85 million dollars) emergency aid package for Palestinians within the occupied territories, as well as refugees in Syria and Lebanon.

Yet Davies said it was not Europe's responsibility to provide "our taxpayers' money" to provide the heavily impoverished civilians in Gaza with basic sustenance. "Gaza has been turned into an Israeli police camp," he said. "Israel should be responsible for keeping the 1.5 million people there alive."

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European commissioner for external relations, said that some EU-funded projects in Gaza have had to be suspended because Israel had banned the import of spare parts for hospitals and water pumps. Attempts to help civilians have been hampered by how Israel has sealed off Karni -- a crossing on the Israeli-Gaza border that is vitally important to the Palestinian economy -- for the past four months.

Nonetheless, she said that the EU has been able to provide social allowances to 35,000 families in the West Bank and Gaza.

She also said that she was "cautiously optimistic" that a peace conference to be hosted by the US next month will have positive results. She welcomed the US willingness to invite leaders from Syria and Saudi Arabia to attend that conference in Annapolis, Maryland.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has signaled he is not in favor of Syria's participation, arguing that he would prefer the discussions to focus on Israel's relations with the Palestinians, rather than with Syria. Bishar Assad, the Syrian President, has indicated he will not attend unless the conference addresses the question of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967.
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