Today (Tuesday), the European Union’s External Action Service (EEAS) announced the launch of an agreement, the fifth of its kind, for construction and infrastructure projects to benefit Palestinians in Area C – bringing the official total of allocations for these projects to €15.2 million.
Although the press statement lists the projects involved as seemingly innocuous humanitarian aid, today’s announcement tears away the mask that usually covers the political agenda just below the surface. By funding construction and infrastructure projects that neither apply for nor receive permits from the Israeli Civil Administration – as required by international law and as stipulated in the Oslo Accords, to which the EU is a signatory – these “humanitarian” projects are nothing more than illegal land-grabs that target strategic areas of Judea and Samaria.
“The absurdity of today’s announcement would be laughable if it weren’t so insidious,” says Regavim’s Director General, Meir Deutsch. “Claiming, on the one hand, that it condemns unilateral steps (“The European Union’s position on Area C is clear: we will not recognise any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by both sides”), in the very same breath the statement outlines a host of projects that will create facts on the ground and lay the groundwork for the creation of a Palestinian state in Area C (“The EU and EU Member States support to [sic] developmental interventions in Area C initiated and promoted by the Palestinian Ministry of Local Government”). In other words – we will not recognize any changes unless they are changes we make…”
Oddly, the EU and its member states don’t find the housing, education, employment, water infrastructure or electricity grid in Areas A and B, the areas of Judea and Samaria under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction, worthy of similar investment.
Even more oddly, the EU seems unperturbed by the massive worldwide financial crisis caused by the corona pandemic and seems to have no qualms about diverting European taxpayers’ money to create new “villages” in previously uninhabited areas of Judea and Samaria.
If the Israeli government allows itself to be treated like a chastised, powerless child and continues to turn a blind eye to blatant violations of international law and signed treaties in the service of the Palestinian Authority’s aggressive takeover of Israel’s heartland, it will be hard pressed to convince voters that is a nationalist government – or a government at all.
See the EASS announcement here,
