sanctions urged to rein in israel

Sanctions urged to rein in Israel
From correspondents in London
29mar04

A BRITISH MP today called for economic sanctions against Israel, including cutting off arms supplies, to force it back to the negotiating table with the Palestinians.

Labour's Gerald Kaufman said: "It is not enough for the world community, including our own government, to condemn the Israeli government's brutal policies of repression.
"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 frontbench 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," he told members of his Manchester constituency.

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