Palestinian Relationship With Europe

Nadene Goldfoot

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gets a hug from European Union Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini. Federica Mogherini is an Italian politician who served as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission from November 2014 to November 2019.

Whereby things are rosy between the European Union and Israel economically, Israel views four decades of EU declarations on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict as one-sided and pro-Palestinian.  This means that for the past 40 years, the EU has sided 

with the UN which has been top-heavy with Arab countries siding 

with their compatriots, the PLO via Hamas and the PA, who want to 

destroy Israel.  

       In front in the white jacket is Dr. Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany  and 

                                    de facto leader of European Union.  

The EU has been more critical of Israel and more supportive of the Palestinians than the US. The general position of the EU is that a Palestinian state should be based on the 1967 borders with land swaps, Jerusalem should be divided and become the capital of both states, and a negotiated settlement be found for the Palestinian refugee issue, although member states have sometimes been divided on these issues. However, all EU states universally consider Israeli settlements illegal under international law. (Cities  or neighborhoods are not called settlements, and Israel is 72 years old. Jerusalem was settled by Jews in King David's day 1010 BCE  and is part of the tribe of Judah's land. Jews come from Judah. ) The EU has insisted that it will not recognize any changes to the 1967 borders other than those agreed between the parties. Israel's settlement program has, thus, led to tensions. The most difficult of these issues, however, is Jerusalem.                                  

Israel has insisted that the city will remain its undivided capital, and is fiercely opposed to its re-division. Israel does not regard Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem as settlements, while the EU does. East Jerusalem has been a de facto part of Israel following Israel's unilateral annexation of the area, while the EU, along with the rest of the international community, regards it as occupied territory subject to negotiations. The EU has frequently criticized Jewish construction in East Jerusalem.

"EU efforts to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians include funding anti-Semitic Palestinian organizations and schoolbooks and censuring nations intending to locate embassies in Jerusalem".  The author is being quite facetious.  In other words, they are working towards keeping the Palestinians as enemies of Israel.                                       

You'd think that after experiencing the 2nd World War, Europe would act differently towards the Jewish people.   So many had swallowed the line of the Nazis in the first place of Jews being 3rd class citizens and blaming all their mishandlings of their government on the Jews, and now they swallow everything the Palestinians say against the Israelis.   A few Europeans, probably in fear for their own lives, aided and abetted the Nazis in finding Jews to slaughter during  the war. while a few helped Jews to safety.  That very old, very deep anti-Semitic feeling was very strong though under the surface in good times, and during Germany's economic break-down, surfaced loud and clear, and it is still there. Nazi sympathizers have been popping up even in Portland, Oregon. 

Since 1998, Israel and the EU have been in dispute over the legal treatment of products exported to the EU from the occupied Palestinian territories (they mean Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem). Israel argues that these are produced in its customs territory and should thus be subject to the Association Agreement and benefit from preferential treatment. The EU maintains that the Territories are not part of Israel, and are illegal under international law, and such products do not therefore benefit from preferential treatment. 

                                              

Soda Stream is one business made here.  Until 2015, its principal manufacturing facility was located in the Mishor Adumim industrial park in the West Bank, creating controversy and a boycott campaign.  In October 2015, under pressure from BDS activists, SodaStream closed its factory in Ma'ale Adumim and moved to a new facility in Lehavim,  and laid off more than 500 Palestinian workers in the process.

The bizarre fact is that the Palestinians benefited by working for Soda

Stream, the only business there.  

We cannot forget our past history and  Kristallnacht.  Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November Pogrom, was a pogrom against Jews carried out by SA paramilitary forces and civilians throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938. The German authorities looked on without intervening.  It was the 

night that all Jewish businesses were broken into; the glass facing the streets broken, the end of their businesses.  

The EU and UN together have 1,769 issues on the docket about Israel of concern from the end of February to the present day.  One of them of recent days is concern of homes and buildings of Palestinians in East Jerusalem that are being razed.  The issue, once looked into, is over city plans and lack of building permits.  Jerusalem is no longer a divided city but a unified one; Israel's most important city of the past  3 thousand years plus. 

                                                 

 Jerusalem was a Jewish city since King David in 1010 BCE and is once again, ready to make their own decisions about their capital.  Israel was attacked in 47-49; 56; and 67 when they regained control of Jerusalem, winning each time.  The UN and the EU cannot tell Israel how to run their own capital.  Jerusalem has been called "The City of David" for good reason.  

Resource:

https://www.factsandlogic.org/how-the-european-union-obstructs-peace-between-israel-and-the-palestinians/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notification&utm_campaign=vwo_notification_1601339682&vwo_powered=1 

https://www.un.org/unispal/document/eu-local-statement-on-the-demolitions-of-palestinian-structures-in-the-occupied-west-bank/

https://www.un.org/unispal/document-source/european-union-eu/

https://www.un.org/unispal/document-source/european-union-eu/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93European_Union_relations

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/186776