ICRR
Israeli Committee for Right of Residency
Tel: 972-9-958-4804; Fax 972-9-956-0529
AIDE MEMOIRE
DATE: Tuesday, 12/12/06
SUBJECT: Meeting the Finnish Ambassador and the 1st Secretary
PARTICIPANTS: Prof. Yehuda Kupferman; Israel E. Naor
LOCATION: Finnish Embassy, 40 Einstein St., Tel Aviv
[The Tower, Ramat Aviv Shopping Center]
Reported by: Israel E. Naor
On Tuesday, December 12, 2006 Yehuda and myself met with the Finnish Ambassador, Mr. Kari Veijalainen and the 1st Secretary of the Embassy Ms. Riika Eela[1]. The meeting was especially important considering the fact that Finland is the current president of the European Union[2]. Our discussion with the Ambassador and the 1st Secretary focused on the latest steps taken by our authorities in denying Palestinians with foreign citizenship the right to stay any longer in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to request his intervention on behalf of affected people with European citizenship.
The Ambassador and the 1st secretary were obviously well informed, had already been approached on the subject by Basil Ayish [Head of the Palestinian Campaign for the Right of Entry/Re- Entry to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt)] and had intervened with several Israeli ministries (Foreign, Interior, Defense and Internal Security). Though Israeli spokesmen generally promised (verbally) to address the problem and find a reasonable and equitable solution, nothing of these promises had materialized until now. The first meeting with Foreign and Interior Ministry officals took place on October 23, 2006 (see attached Verbal Note of 11/21) in which Israeli officials appeared to be totally unaware of the problem (!!) and requested concrete cases from the European Ambassadors. At the same meeting Israeli officials told the Ambassadors that following the submission of conrete cases, they would get back with a reply within a couple of days. At the end of October Finland submitted to the DG of the Ministry of the Interior (Abramovich) no less than 80 specific cases but the Ministry ignored its promise and failed to come up with a reply. A second letter by the Finnish Ambasssador was sent to Mr. Abramovich on November 3 which contained a request for a formal response on various categories of foreign citizens and also this, second, letter was ignored. In addition, several European countries, Finland included, expressed their concern about this issue in bilateral demarches to accredited Israeli representatives in their respective capitals. Of all this nothing happened on the ground. The Ambassador also mentioned that the issue had been raised during a recent European Union meeting in Brussels, attended also by Israeli representatives, who claimed to be unaware and uniformed about the whole issue(!!). The Ambassador could hardly hide his frustration about Israel's failure to live up to its promise and provide a satisfactory reply to the many inquires.
We expressed to the Ambassador our opinion that Israel's stalling tactic reflected Israel's unwillingness to allow any interference with an ongoing ethnic cleansing process of the OPT even though the area, according to Israel's own announcements is not considered part of Israel. But deeds speak louder than words.
We also expressed to the Ambassador our feeling that threats of reciprocal steps by respective countries would perhaps be the strongest persuasion for Israel's change of policy.
Tomorrow, December 13, the Ambassdor with two other European ambassadors will meet with Maj. Gen. Joseph Mishlav, the Israeli 'Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories' (COGAT) and broach the issue demanding a formal reply to submitted inquires in writing. The Ambassador also promised to raise the isssue with the Finnish Foreign Secretary who is due to arrive here next week.
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[1] Ms. Eela is leaving for Berlin where she'll be continuing handling Palestinian- related issues. Relevant material may be forwarded to her via e-mail riikka.eela@ formin.fi
[2] Finland's term expires at the end of December 2006. Germany is next in line to assume the presidency.