EU's Solana: 1,000 people a day use Gaza border crossing
Palestine-European Union, Politics, 12/21/2005

A senior European diplomat says more than 1,000 people a day are now traveling between Egypt and the Palestinian Territories using the historic border crossing negotiated in November by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Since the Rafah crossing opened November 26, "more than 20,000 people have been able to cross the border between Gaza and Egypt," the European Union's (EU) Javier Solana said on a December 18 visit to Gaza. Solana is the EU's senior representative for security and foreign policy.

"That is now more than 1,000 a day in both directions," Solana, a former NATO secretary-general, told reporters. The EU is deploying approximately 70 personnel to monitor the new "Philadelphia Road" crossing into Egypt. The Palestinian Authority is responsible for border control and customs.

During his daylong visit, Solana also met with the EU Coordinating Office for Palestinian Police Support, which is working on a three-year plan to develop and advise Palestinian police forces. Speaking to reporters at the Rafah border terminal, Solana said the EU police advisory mission will expand in January 2006.

Palestinians are preparing to vote January 25, 2006, for a new Legislative Council, he said. "Precisely at this complex moment," Solana said, "let me confirm the wholesale commitment of the EU to the peace process and the implementation of the road map" for peace between Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

Solana also called on Palestinians to renounce violence in their quest for a separate state.

European leaders might "think twice about their engagement with the Palestinian Authority and about committing their taxpayers' money if members of the elected Palestinian leadership do not renounce violence and do not recognize Israel," Solana said, according to a transcript released by the EU.

The crossing at Rafah opening was announced November 15 after Rice and other international mediators completed all-night negotiations with Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Solana also took part in the negotiations, as did James Wolfensohn, the international community's special envoy for the Israeli disengagement from Gaza.

Meeting with reporters after the deal was reached, Rice said the agreement allows Palestinians to gain control over exit and entry into their territory for the first time since 1967. The Rafah crossing is staffed by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, with the EU assisting in a third-party role. The European deployment is called the EU Border Assistance Mission, or EU-BAM Rafah.

The agreement also calls for the start of bus and truck convoys between Gaza and the West Bank, the reduction of obstacles to movement within the West Bank, the export of Palestinian agricultural products, authorization to begin construction of a Palestinian seaport, and acknowledgment by the parties of the importance of a Palestinian airport, Rice said November 15.

"The European Union ... in taking on its first security responsibility in the region has given the Palestinian people a chance to start building their future state in reality, not just in rhetoric," Daniel Fried, US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said December 14 at the American Enterprise Institute.

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