Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni verbally clashed with French Member of Parliament Danny Cohen Bendit during her address before the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee on Tuesday.
As Livni recounted the progress Israel has made in negotiations with the Palestinians during the past year, Cohen Bendit interrupted her, asking, "How can you talk about progress when Palestinian children are detained at checkpoints and can't go to school?"
Livni responded angrily to Cohen Bendit's question, raising her voice and saying "the children in Sderot and in the Gaza vicinity sometimes can't go to school because of the rocket strikes. Israel is not interested in making Palestinian children suffer, but it is impossible to ignore the security situation and ultimately, the checkpoints are designed to prevent suicide attacks. Israeli children are attacked every day from the areas which Israel evacuated." Also Tuesday, EU lawmakers told Livni that her country has to do more to stop the expansion of West Bank settlements. They said settlers' moves to defend their homes there were threatening Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
The foreign minister said it was no longer official Israeli policy to expand settlements in the West Bank and the government has been trying to reduce them since peace talks restarted last year.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1042986.html