8 November 2006 - EU leaders face calls today to investigate allegations that Israel unlawfully used experimental uranium-based weapons on civilian targets in its recent war with Lebanon.

Peace campaigner and Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has written to EU heads of state and the European Commission demanding they investigate the allegations, bring pressure to bear on Israel to scrap the weapons entirely, and take urgent measures to protect humanitarian workers from the resulting radiation.

The Green Party MEP, also a member of the European Parliament’s delegation to the occupied Palestinian territories and a former EU election observer in Gaza , said: “The UN is investigating shocking allegations that the Israeli Air Force used experimental uranium-based weapons designed to cause extremely powerful hot shrapnel blasts within a small area.

“The use of novel weapons incapable of distinguishing between military and civilian targets is a clear breach of the Geneva Conventions – and it is vital that the EU use all means at its disposal, including the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement which gives special access to Israeli producers to EU markets, to bring pressure to bear on Israel to stop using these weapons immediately.”

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is currently investigating the allegations. Though the Israeli Defence Forces are denying using new uranium weapons, twenty UNEP experts, working with Lebanese environmentalists, have spent two weeks gathering evidence of their use from various samples found at centres of fierce recent fighting, in particular in the South Lebanese villages of Khiam and At Tiri.

The experts warn that particles from the explosions were long-lived in the environment and could be inhaled into the lungs, with ’significant’ health effects on civilians. Their findings are due to be published in December.

Dr Chris Busby, of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, reported in October that preliminary soil samples taken from south Lebanese villages showed ‘elevated radiation signatures’ not compatible with the more widespread depleted uranium weapons known to be in use by Israel – as well as by UK and US forces.

Dr Lucas, who is Green Party MEP for South-East England and co-founder and co-president of the European Parliament’s cross-party ‘peace initiatives’ intergroup, as well as being a national council member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), added:

“It is absolutely unacceptable that Israel ’s conduct in both the war in Lebanon and the ongoing Palestinian conflict has no apparent regard for international law – and the EU has a global responsibility to act to prevent abuses on either side.

“A peaceful resolution to the conflict will only come once both sides fully respect all relevant international treaties and conventions – and that means an end to the use of experimental uranium weapons, indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and the decommissioning of Israel ’s unlawful nuclear arsenal.”

ENDS