[news] British MP calls for economic sanctions against Israel

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Agence France Presse	 March 29, 2004

Kaufman wants economic sanctions against Israel

London - Labour MP Gerald Kaufman called for economic sanctions against
Israel, including cutting off arms supplies, to force it back to the
negotiating table with the Palestinians.

"It is not enough for the world community, including our own government, to
condemn the Israeli government's brutal policies of repression," he said
late Sunday while addressing members of his Manchester constituency.

"Only widespread economic sanctions on Israel, together with cutting off
arms supplies, can make any impact on this government without a conscience".


Kaufman, himself Jewish, said President George W. Bush's father, the former
president Bush, had "understood the importance of forcing the Israelis to
the conference table by imposing economic sanctions on a previous Likud
Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir."

Kaufman, once a front-bench Labour foreign affairs spokesman when the party
was in opposition, criticised a decision by George W. Bush to receive Sharon
in Washington.

"Bush has shown whose side he is on in this grossly unequal struggle by
refusing to invite the Palestinian prime minister, even though the
ostensible purpose of the invitation to Sharon is the Middle East peace
process," Kaufman said.

Sharon has received an invitation to meet Bush on April 14.


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