The government should ban European Union-funded projects in Area C of the West Bank until the EU rescinds its new policies against areas across the pre- 1967 lines, the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip said on Tuesday.
“All European projects [for Palestinians] in Judea and Samaria should be stopped until this unilateral decision is rescinded,” the council stated.
It was one of a number of calls by settler and rightwing organizations that urged the government to take a no-holds-barred approach to combating the EU’s anti-settlement stance.
Gush Etzion Regional Council head David Perl called on Israel to annex Area C.
“Now is the time for the prime minister to stand up and apply Israeli law on territory that is part of our homeland, and in so doing fix an ongoing historical distortion,” Perl said.
The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel urged the government immediately to pass the Edmund Levy report, which says that Israel has a right under international law to settle in the West Bank.
“The right answer to the EU is the immediate implementation of the Edmund Levy report to clarify to the Europeans and others that it is not our policy to weaken our legal and historic right to the land,” the forum said.
Settlers were blasting the EU on Tuesday in response to new European Commission guidelines, published on June 30, that Israeli governmental and non-governmental entities over the pre-1967 lines were not eligible for EU grants, prizes or funding. The guidelines followed a December 10 decision by the EU Foreign Affairs Council, which said that all agreements between the State of Israel and the EU were not applicable over the pre-1967 lines.
The EU has consistently refused to recognize Israel beyond the pre- 1967 lines, also known as the Green Line, and as such the move has little pragmatic impact for West Bank settlements and institutions situated there. They were not eligible for EU grants and funding before, and they are still not eligible.
But the EU’s strong policy statement against West Bank settlements, made for the second time in less than a year, has a diplomatic impact on its relationship with Israel, and underscores the extent to which it considers Israeli areas over the pre-1967 lines to be illegal and illegitimate.
In particular, based on the December 10 decision, new language explaining that the EU does not recognize territory over the pre- 1967 lines will now be included in any future agreements with Israel.
The Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip said it was upset that policy statements about this had become public on Tisha Be’av, the traditional day of mourning for the destruction of the Temple 2,000 years ago.
“Europe has not learned from its history. On the ninth of Av, Europe returns to its policy of boycott and separation against the State of Israel,” the council said. It added that this kind of unqualified support for the Palestinian Authority had turned the EU into a non-neutral entity in the West Bank.
Israeli left-wing groups, meanwhile, hailed the EU’s move.
Peace Now, which supports a two-state solution along the pre- 1967 lines, advised Israel to take the move seriously.
“The EU’s decision broadcasts a clear message that the world does not recognize the West Bank settlements, which contradict universal democratic values. Israel’s government is fighting a losing battle against the global understanding that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank has to end,” the group said.
“Israel can’t force Israeli and international officials to take part in the settlement enterprise, which goes against a worldview of moral values,” it added.
Gush Shalom said the EU’s position was akin to pouring a bucket of cold water over Israel’s head.
“The EU has started to confront the government of Israel – and every citizen of Israel – with a road sign that cannot be ignored,” Gush Shalom said, adding that one path led to peace and international esteem, and the other to war.
“The time to choose between these two paths is running out,” it said.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign welcomed the move, but said more work was necessary. It called on the EU to penalize any company that worked with the settlements, even if the firms were not located there.
Dani Dayan, who holds a new post as the ambassador for the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, hinted on Twitter at the wartime process of “selektzia,” by which Nazi officers would decide which Jews headed for the gas chambers on their arrival at the death camps.
“How will selection be done on youth delegations?” Dayan tweeted.
“A German will say: Tel Aviv to the right, East Jerusalem to the left? Or will it be a Polish job?” The move, he said, was a sign that the Jewish community in Judea and Samaria was growing stronger.
“When we were small, no one bothered. Today we are almost 700,000 Israelis beyond Green Line, so they are bothered. Good deal,” he tweeted.
Ariel Mayor Eliyahu Shviro charged that the new EU guidelines were tantamount to a boycott.
“I’m against boycotts of any kind.
They do not achieve the objective of the boycotters. What [they do] is place more lighter fluid on already existing divisions. But that could be what the initiators of this EU initiative intended,” Shviro said.
“Those who want to bridge differences and unify people can’t use the unacceptable boycott tool,” he added.
Thousands of Palestinians work in factories and businesses in Samaria, the mayor said. It would not occur to anyone to ban them from those jobs because of their religion, belief or place of residence.
Perl called the EU move an “obscene” and “contemptible” decision.
“This kind of blatant interference in the management of a democratic and independent state is unprecedented. It’s time that the EU dealt with its own problems instead of interfering in Israel’s,” he said.
“A two-state solution is delusional and without merit,” he continued.
“Today it is clear that the Palestinians do not want and are not capable of coming to an agreement [with Israel].”
Just now, the immorality of “occupation” is a poetic truth around the world that can’t be dented by facts, logic or reason. That is because the Leftist Labor Government of Israel has accepted the legal opinion Of Theodor Meron that the status of the Jews in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem is that of a belligerent occupier. That is not correct. The Jews there are non-belligerent occupiers because the owner of the political rights is the “Jewish People”, not any fictional “Palestinian Arab People” as coined by the Soviet dezinformatsiya when the drafted the preamble to the PLO Charter in Moscow in 1964.
I have been occupying my house since September, 1964. I am an occupier of it but a non-belligerent occupier of it as I own it. There is nothing immoral about my occupation.
It is time for Israel to adopt a public diplomacy that is best under undeniable history. That is not the wishy-washy view that the land is not “occupied”. It is being occupied. But there is nothing immoral about the occupation because it is owned by the Jewish People who do not object to occupation by Jews. Until now, the claim of immoral occupation has been met with the defense that it is better to refer to this territory as “disputed” because of Jordan’s acquisition of it in an aggressive war, and Israel’s conquest of it in a defensive war — with the added hint that Israel’s claim to this disputed land is better.
But as the Soviet dezinformatsiya planned, it is obvious that Jews are occupying these territories. It is the kernel of truth that the disinformatsiya uses to make their propaganda effective. The way to counter it is with the Levy report, reworded so that one need not be a lawyer to understand it. Jews are occupying their own land as provided not only in Canon law but also in International Law. For the British and Americn leftists, they can be shown that this is also the domestic treaty law of the US and the UK.
@ bernard ross:
dear mr Ross,
It would not surprise me one bit, were the GOI ‘succeed’ once more to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory…
🙁
@ bernard ross:
@ Canadian Otter:
Survey: 64% want Temple rebuilt
Almost two thirds of Israelis, including half of seculars would like to see Temple rebuilt, believe it is important to commemorate Tisha B’Av
See a previous comment of mine here: https://www.israpundit.org/2008/?p=15928&cpage=1#comment-57612
@ Canadian Otter:
@ bernard ross:
Tisha B’Av 2013: The Children Are Ready II
Dare to Dream/Dare to Build
The Key to annexation and saving Israel is the Temple.
@ bernard ross:
@ Canadian Otter:
Abbas: Israel trying to rebuild Jewish Temple!
@ bernard ross:
@ Canadian Otter:
One third of Israeli Jews want Temple rebuilt in Jerusalem, poll finds
Among religious Jews questioned, 43 percent support construction on Temple Mount, compared with 31 percent among secular Jews. Survey released ahead of Tisha B’Av also finds Western Wall still considered Judaism’s holiest site.
Rather than use shot gum methodologies, conceptions and expensive execution my idea is to focus on as narrowly as possible with maximum concentration and massive effort.
Retaking the Temple mount from under the authority of the Muslim “Wakf” and returned 100% under Jewish sovereignty, by demanding:
Uninhibited Jewish access to the temple Mt.
Permission for Jews to pray on the Mt.
Permission to erect a synagogue on the Mt.
Cessation of any and all Muslim construction on the Mt. environment.
Any Muslim Arab or Gentile making trouble will be imprisoned or deported.
Any conflict of times of prayer will be awarded to Jews over any gentile.
Israel archeology Dept. will have sole authority over any construction or repairs to the site and will have 100% access to every square inch of the Mt.
The government of Israel is so afraid of what might occur that they could be blackmailed into being more forceful in opposing a 2 state solution and allowing Jews more freedom to build and expand in Y&S as a tradeoff.
Actually the Law and Israeli Supreme Court decisions have stated that the Jews have all rights to go up to the MT and pray but have given the police the final say by giving them the power to declare Jewish presence and prayer on the mt. a Provocation and endangering public order.
That can change by administrative edict not even by amending the law. If a serious effort organizationally can be created then this issue will force any Israeli government to capitulate and force the Rabbinate which is at best split and at worst against Jewish sovereignty on the mt. to move in support and even change their Halachic prohibitions.
yamit82 Said:
thank you for this interesting summary which confirmed my suspicions regarding the settlement after 67. My mind boggles at what caused this complete turnaround by almost all Israeli political parties. The only hope I see is a groundswell of popular opposition to the obviously discredited bases of these anti settlement ideas which focus on what can be given the pals. The only hope I see for opposition arising is as a result of some combination of education, activism and lawfare that takes place outside the GOI and which would need a well focused and funded plan. Perhaps the settlers and nationalists can get the same jew who funded obama to fund a jewish cause.
I find that the strangest thing is the way that those within the coalition that call for annexation are in the same party that call for 2 states. To me it is weird to see one likud member for annexation and the other for 2 states and not even all of C. I never hear from anyone the idea that the unpopulated areas of C under dispute should go to the jews instead of the pals to fulfill the original goals of the mandate(again, even on a minimal level, jewish settlement) I have never heard a legally based argument against jewish settlement
Canadian Otter Said:
you preach to the converted. I thought you would have known my position re the successive GOI. I have long stood for organizing, activism, and especially lawfare. My main reason for lawfare is that it is the only tool with a potential of being effective in a situation where a minority wishes to preserve its rights under law. I have gone a step further in that I no longer have faith in Israeli Jews as my conclusion is that the majority of Israeli jews do not want even area C. Therefore, I advise that the minority try the only potential route of lawfare which has been almost completely ignored. The track I would take are the international binding agreements which call for the facilitation of jewish immigration and the encourage of close settlement of jews in former palestine mandate territory. The track I would avoid in lawfare are arguments of annexation because this is the argument of the detractors which quotes the GC and clouds negatively the argument of Jewish immigration. My hope is also that undertaking the battle for jewish immigration might educate those jews who are principled but ignorant. My advice is not based on what I want but on what I believe has the only potential for success in a state where both the govt and majority population are not even interested in C.
My advice re settlement in the face of the EU and ceasing their projects was purely to identify an avenue a real goi could take in reaction to the EU actions in the hope that some jews might demand action in the face of other jews calling for capitulation and subservience.
What moral values does the world have? There is no universal standard of morality. Most of the world is populated by savage, primitive cultures where bloodshed is routine and slavery is still practiced. How can they possibly stand in judgement of civilized Israel? And the advanced nations think nothing of doing business with the most heinous regimes on earth, but Jews living in the Jewish homeland is too beyond the pale to have any relations with. This is not an example of moral values, it is its opposite, it is pure antisemitism.
TO BERNARD ROSS: we can’t expect anything good to come from the Israeli government – much less increased settlements. The most they do is keep things calm and protect the borders from invaders. Their masters’ orders are to keep law and order and to help with the peaceful partition of Israel. Violence is bad for business.
Regarding expansion of the settlements, the Jewish settled area is only 1.5% of all of Judea and Samaria. Even to double that would be a drop in the bucket, and at the current pace it would take centuries.
The only real option is in the hands of the population: to organize and empower themselves. Leaving it all up to the government is nothing less than suicidal. Just look at the politicians’ record. They talk about the sacredness of Jerusalem, but they allow Arabs to attack Jews with impunity. The government can’t wait to get rid of Yesha, and it tries all kinds of tricks to entice the Arabs to take it, while reassuring Jews that it will be done with their security in mind. And if it all fails, they will simply “disengage”.
Israeli Jews need to take the initiative and the responsibility for their country’s destiny. There is no other way.
@ bernard ross:
Governments of Israel and pre-State Yishuv always had a Zionist settlement policy in that you build first strategically mostly as close to Arab villages and towns then you send in the army to protect the settlements and settlers and little by little create facts on the ground and at the same time deny land for Arab expansion by the placement, protection and enforcement of Jewish settlements. It’s a slow and tedious method but worked up till the first intifada and subsequent Oslo accords. Arabs migrated due to lack of land and employment in Israel. When Israel stopped the policy when the Likud came to power Arab population took off and land confiscation by Arabs mushroomed out of control.. The Israeli right became more PC than the left who actually practiced settlement Zionism. The Likud cared too much what the left is thinking and saying and what Uncle Sam and the Europeans are demanding. The left in that sense were more settlement friendly and to a larger extent practiced what they preached unlike the Likud. The left through Golda’s term had a policy of doing and not talking, it was a silent settlement policy.
The Israel Labor party began settlements in Y&S and Gaza. Built settlements in Sinai and Gaza. Built extensive infrastructures and for the most part didn’t take crap from the Arabs. All that changed when the right took power.
Begin was the worst of the traitorous and duplicitous phony right wing politicians. The Israeli left were correct in characterizing him as a demagogue.
Israel can no longer afford to ignore the canard of illegal jewish settlement perpetuated by the EU. Adopting levy is words only, only a massive settlement program will demonstrate Israels view that jewish settlement is legal. annexation can wait because that issue is argued on the GC. if there is jewish settlement annexation will follow and enfranchisement is not an issue until annexation. Simply continue the role of the mandate and fulfill its goals to which the international community already legally agreed. This is what they fear the most because there is no true legal argument against Jewish settlement. Their only legal argument is against annexation which becomes moot after settlement. The argument should be focused on jewish settlement. This is a great opportunity to enter the door opened by the EU.
yamit82 Said:
further, Israel could even cooperate but at the same time implement the ceasing of eu projects in YS stating that the eu action has created a new situation wrt the eu relationship to YS. to avoid ambiguity and maintain consistency the eu/ys relationship must be ceased in its entirety. They can wire their money to the PA but no physical presence or other involvement can continue. This can limit the disagreement to YS only which is their own tactic(pretending to deal with YS only).
The best way to demonstrate that jewish settlement in YS is legal is by initiating a massive settlement program.
yamit82 Said:
If Israel suspended all eu projects in YS, thereby limiting the retaliation according to the EU aggression, pending the outcome of diplomatic clarifications and negotiations, including discussion of the libel of illegal jewish settlement I do not believe the EU would go further but would rather engage in the standoff game. After a while when it is demonstrated that the pals suffer they will back down using that excuse but it would be better for Israel to keep them out of YS. Their object is to show they are fighting the pals battle and there is no advantage to them proceeding further and making it worse for all. This is an opportunity that will be missed by israel. It does not need to be implemented with rancor, on the contrary, it can be implemented as a temporary stopgap measure resulting purely from the unilateral eu action. blame it on them.
@ yamit82:
If that’s the harsh reality, then allow government officials to play the submissive diplomats, while the people of Israel engage in an aggressive campaign to expose the Europeans’ never broken chain of genocidal anti-Semitism and discrimination going back many centuries.
What if Israeli folks were to carpet bomb the media with history lessons, such as the violation of the Palestinian Mandate by the British, European support for PLO terrorists, Western training of Muslim Brotherhood with the specific aim of destroying Israel, widespread protection of Nazi criminals (some of them in government jobs), and much, much more that goes on right now. Place in front of their noses Israel’s legal right to the land (Howard Grief left a vast legacy of research in this area). EU new generations don’t know about any of this, they’ve been so brainwashed in school and by the media. (Maybe this lack of information goes for Israeli youth as well.)
Expose Europeans as the genocidal racists they still are! Jewish silence has gone on for too long. While the Third Reich takes all the blame, post-war Europeans have continued on the warpath disguised as “humanitarians”.
Let Israelis speak the truth. Something is STILL rotten in Europe’s treatment of the Jews and it should be loudly denounced. There are many ways of making the media cover this campaign. PR professionals can give them clues.
And if the number of Israelis willing to carry out this campaign is small, so be it. They will have to make up for it with hard work, excellent strategy, and the recruitment of prominent Jews. They will just have to make themselves heard over the silence of their compatriots. And in shaming the Europeans, they will also shame Jews who remain silent.
Turn the Europeans’ own guns on themselves. Use their aggression to prove the point that they are Nazis in humanitarian clothing.
@ yamit82:
Yamit,
Europe is headed for a boycott, even possibly a military blockade, of Israel regardless of what Israel does. Europe is back to its Hitlerian form and nothing – NOTHING – Israel does will appease it. They want you dead. Your choice is either stand up to the Euronazis – maybe even attack their shipping in the Mediterranean – or be slowly strangled to death.
They have already decided to kill you. Since the breakup is inevitable, why not do it now? Better that Israel have 12% unemployment than 100% death.
@ Canadian Otter:
Most Jews in Israel except those from Arab distraction (Sephardim) are products of European culture and to a large extent thinking just like America and probably Canada still are today. The old saying ‘you can take the boy from the farm but never the farm from the boy’ Too many Israelis look to Europe as the epitome as what what is high culture, a legacy from times past but still influential in art, literature,fashion, music, theater and high end cosmopolitan life styles.
Europe being relatively close and accessible,and inexpensive is still a draw for Israeli tourism and exports…It’s a huge market. Israel must export or die is an economic truism and fact of life. Costs including tariffs and transport do matter and are critical calculations. Israel cannot deal directly with our immediate neighbors and Europe is a close as we can get to those other than our Arab neighbors.
Most of the Tourism to Israel comes from Europe and that’s a factor to be considered.
Given enough time Israel can diversify sufficiently to mitigate the European leverage but not yet and it might take a decade or more with a lot of effort on our part.
Turkey is the China of the ME today. If I want a refrigerator, washer or most white appliances including A/C’s, it will probably be made in Turkey regardless of manufacturer. Want to buy a Mercedes in Israel it will be made in Turkey. That gives Turkey a lot of leverage both economically and politically with the EU and Israel. Turkey is our 4th or 5th largest trading partner an despite poor relations our annual bilateral trade is increasing yearly with Turkey, Asia, India and the USA/Canada. South America is becoming a more important trading partner with Israel as well. Europe is either flat or decreasing slightly.
There are many things I would love to see BB and Israel do to retaliate against Europe but there is always the question of cutting ones nose off to spite ones face?
I would go for retaliation assuming that they need us more than we need them and if we showed backbone pride and steadfastness of resolve that damage if any would be short term and the EU would cave because that’s what they do when pushed.
It would take for BB to do such a thing a lot of balls because he would incur a lot of internal flak from the media, the left and business community here in Israel, not to mention American Jews and the American government who follow Europe’s lead in most issues re: the ME and Israel.
Still too mild a reaction. – Europe’s latest act of hatred and exclusion is a symbolic yellow armband for Jews of Judea and Samaria. And who gave them permission? Your very own government, by treating J/S as not really being part of Israel.
Yesha Jews need to organize and present the government with a clear list of demands. It would be ideal if they could organize independently from the current Yesha councils. They definitely need effective new leadership they can trust. They also need to publicly and repeatedly denounce all aspects of the European war against Israel, exposing it as the continuation of centuries of hatred. They need to articulate that connection and make it the center of their counterattack.
Israel’s desperate need to have ‘normal’ relations with Europe is rather baffling considering that Europeans’ hostility has never stopped, and they have never shown true remorse for their many crimes – aside from their hypocritical speeches and memorials. One of Europe’s most grievous post-WW2 acts has been their ongoing support for Nazi Arabs, thus adding insult to injury.
It’s useless to expect Israeli authorities to show any self-respect. They are impervious to international and Arab insults. In this case their interest is to maintain profits for those trading with Europe – at any cost. So it will be up to Israeli Jews to confront EU anti-Semitism and to remind the Israeli govt in no uncertain terms that they work for Israel – not for the Arabs or genocidal Europe.
Annex all the land, not just parts of it. World reaction will be just as bad in either case. As you already know, the European problem is your very existence, not what you do. And if you allow your govt to partition the land, the Europeans will boycott Israel in punishment for defending itself against Nazi State of Palestine’s terror. Europe will always find an excuse.