EU report slams Israeli settlements, calls for economic sanctions

EU report slams Israeli settlements, calls for economic sanctions:
The harshly worded 15-page report provides recommendations tothe 27 member-states for responding to Israel’s activities in theoccupied territories – which the document described as“systematic, deliberate and provocative” – and endorses astrategy that aims at “making it impossible for Jerusalem tobecome the capital of two states.”

Seven of the report’s 10 recommendations propose slapping tougheconomic sanctions on organizations directly involved inconstruction projects in the Jewish settlements, Israeli dailyHaaretz reported. The report also called on the EU’s 27member-states to “prevent, discourage and raise awareness”about doing business with companies that work in the disputedsettlement zones.

It advised EU states to work to ensure that products exported fromthe settlements not receive an unfair advantage through“preferential tariffs,” and to give consumers an opportunityto make an “informed choice” through clear labeling ofproducts’ origins.

The report advocated “closer supervision” of technologicalresearch and development programs between the EU and Israel. Themeasures would work to ensure that “no research grants,scholarships or other technological investments assist settlements,either directly or indirectly,” or be provided to agenciesworking in the settlements.

Haaretz, which obtained a copy of the report, called the sanctions“particularly severe” compared to earlier EU reports.

The annual report, compiled by EU consuls in Jerusalem andRamallah, does not require member-states to implement the measures– the document’s recommendations serve as a guidepost forindividual EU states in dealing with the ongoingIsraeli-Palestinian conflict.

In December, several EU countries, including the UK, France andSweden, summoned their Israeli ambassadors to voicedisapproval of the ongoing construction projects.

Settlement constructions and the two-state solution

The report expressed frustration with Israel for its late-Novemberannouncement of new settlement construction projects, shortly afterthe UN General Assembly voted to recognize Palestine as anon-member observer state – a move strongly condemned by Israel andthe US.

The implementation of the Israeli government’s so-called E-1project “would effectively divide the West Bank into separatenorthern and southern parts,” the report explained, adding thatit would also “prevent Palestinians in East Jerusalem fromfurther urban development and cut off East Jerusalem from the restof the West Bank.”

Israel is “systematically undermining the Palestinianpresence” in East Jerusalem through controversial strategies,including “restrictive zoning and planning, demolitions andevacuations, discriminatory access to religious sites, aninequitable education policy, difficult access to health care, theinadequate provision of resources,” the report said.

Political analysts have said that any attempt to separate EastJerusalem – which the Palestinians declared to be the capital oftheir future state – from the West Bank, home to some 2 millionPalestinians, would effectively terminate any chance of a two-statesolution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel captured East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War andlater annexed the territory; the international community, however,does not recognize the annexation as legitimate.

In January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defendedsettlement construction in the West Bank, declaring that“Jerusalem will forever be the united capital of ourland.”
The Palestinians have refused to participate in peace talks withNetanyahu unless he halts all settlement construction.