The Council for European Palestinian Relations (CEPR) has announced this has met with an EU commissioner to discuss a recent mission to Lebanon and Palestinian refugees from Syria. According to the CEPR announcement:
March 21, 2013 On Tuesday 20th March 2013, CEPR was welcomed by the EU’s Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. CEPR met with Commissioner Georgieva to present a report on our recent Parliamentary mission to Lebanon, and to discuss what the EU can do to assist Palestinian refugees affected by the crisis in Syria.CEPR was represented by Board of Trustee members Mazen Kahel and MEP Alexandra Thein, and CEPR’s Parliamentary Officer James Tuite. ….CEPR expressed its concern that the plight of Palestinian refugees was being marginalised in the broader context of Syrian refugees. Commissioner Georgieva recognised these concerns, and assured CEPR that she would continue to raise this important issue within the Commission. CEPR also discussed what the EU can do to assist Palestinian refugees beyond providing additional monetary aid. Talks included; making it easier for students with scholarships to be granted visas in the EU, applying pressure on Lebanon to ease Palestinian housing restrictions and to allow Palestinian refugees to work (they are currently prohibited from working outside the camps and in over 70 professions), and what the EU can do to protect Palestinians inside Syria.
A post from earlier this month reported that the CEPR was hosting a European parliamentary delegation which would attempt to visit Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli prisons.
Dr. Arafat Shoukri is the head of both the Council for European Palestinian Relations (CEPR) in Brussels and the Palestine Return Centre (PRC) in the U.K. The PRC has strong ties to the global Muslim Brotherhood and two PRC directors are also directors of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), generally regarded as part of the UK. Muslim Brotherhood. The PRC is also listed as an affiliate of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) dominated by UK. Muslim Brotherhood groups. PRC activities are frequently promoted by the MAB, MCB, and other U.K Brotherhood organizations. PRC director Ghassan Four is also a Trustee of INTERPAL, a key member of the Union of Good and part of the Muslim Brotherhood Hamas fund-raising network . PRC director Zaher Birawi is a Trustee of Education Aid for Palestine (EAP), also a part of the Union of Good. Mr. Birawi is also head of programming for Al-Hiwar TV which frequently features MB/Hamas individuals and organizations and was founded by Azzam Al-Tamimi, a U.K Muslim Brotherhood leader and close to Hamas. An Israeli web site, known to be close to Israeli military intelligence, has reported that Mr. Birawi, along with another PRC Trustee are “past Hamas operatives who found refuge in Britain in the early nineties.” Dr. Shoukri is also the chairman of the European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza (ECESG) which was the main organizer of the unsuccessful Second Gaza Flotilla and which operates from the same address and has the same telephone as the PRC. The CEPR appears to operate largely as a lobbying group at the EU and has accompanied EU lawmakers on trips to Gaza.