H.E. Mr. Ahmad Abdelrazek:

On the first question on EU taxpayers, I emphasise that last year there were talks on corruption and the European Union and the World Bank investigated. They said everything was going okay, but we are always supervised by external organisations to monitor the world assistance provided. If they want to control it, I am not against it. For us, the most important thing is to rebuild what has been destroyed. It is up to the donors to decide how it is rebuilt. We do not have any problem with monitoring from outside.

On the government issue, I think Deputy Durkan asked if everybody agreed with the negotiations with Israel. Of course, they do not. There is always a difference between people because it is different for everyone.

President Abbas has said clearly that if we arrive at an agreement with Israel, it will be put to a referendum and the Palestinians will vote on this agreement. Hamas said that if the Palestinian people agree to this treaty then it will abide by that. We cannot determine who will accept the agreement before it is reached. Of course, even in democratic countries when the government says it is one way, the opposition says "No, it is not this way, it is another way". I cannot guarantee the future without knowing the future. That is why we are negotiating. We know that there will be a referendum of the Palestinians and that nobody will reject the result of the popular referendum because the population will reject them. I think this point is obvious. Hamas and the others mandated President Abbas to negotiate. That is all we agree about. They said "We don't believe in these negotiations because you are losing time but, okay, you can go and negotiate". That is why we say we cannot keep the status quoindefinitely. We have to arrive at a solution.
If there are no crimes, why should we go to the court? As members here know, if I am not wrong, the court takes evidence only after admission. Do I think that Israel will continue to commit crimes in the future? I do not know. I hope not but if they commit them, it is our right to go to the court. We hope we will arrive at a solution before we go to court because that will solve all of the problems but if the occupation continues we will go because settlement is a crime. If the settlements continue, we will go to the court, yes. I will not tell you we will not go and then after the vote, we go. No, I tell you clearly, if they continue, we will go to the court because the settlements are a war crime.