EU lawmakers continue fact-finding trip to West Bank

West Bank  :    Members of the European Parliament on Tuesday continued their fact-finding trip to the occupied West Bank a day after their visit to the city of Hebron coincided with the takeover of two Palestinian homes there by Israeli settlers.

The socialist MEP delegation, headed by Elena Valenciano of Spain, is attempting to gauge the Israeli occupation's impact during their five-day visit to Israel and Palestine, where they are to hold meetings with leaders and members of civil society groups to try to understand conditions on the ground, Efe reported. 

"I think it is very important for people who can intervene in some way in the conflict to try to find bridges to resolve this terrible situation between Israelis and Palestinians learn about the situation 'in situ,'" Valenciano said on Monday.

The group had visited the once-bustling commercial heart of Hebron, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank, where some 200,000 Palestinians live along with 800 Jewish settlers protected by Israeli security forces.

Swedish MEP Soraya Post on Monday described her first visit to Hebron as "shocking," adding that she does not believe that many parliamentarians "really know what the situation is like, in what conditions the people are living here."

Parts of Hebron are under full Israeli military control with Palestinians' movement being extremely limited, and many have been forced to abandon their homes and shutter their businesses, according to the Israeli rights group B'Tselem.

In the same area, Israeli settlers can move freely under army protection, and on Monday, Jewish settlers reportedly took possession of two buildings, alleging that they had bought them legally, a claim they have not yet been able to demonstrate, according to the local press.

Epa photographs taken on Tuesday showed Jewish settlers hanging Israeli flags on a house in the Old City, while armed settlers and Israeli soldiers walked the street below.

Hebron is the only city in the occupied West Bank with Jewish settlements in its center, and its Old City includes a holy site known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque and to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

The mosque was the scene of a 1994 massacre when American Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinian worshippers inside, an act which led to the city's partition and the closure of parts of the Old City to Palestinians.

The West Bank was seized by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory under international law.