Stop cooperation with Israeli settlements but only for EU programs

The Commission will publish guidelines to ensure funds don’t end up in occupied territories

Ashton’s spokesperson specifies: “The decision is not binding for member states”

The European Union is close to publishing the new guidelines to ensure its funds are not invested in the Palestinian occupied territories. A decision, widely anticipated, yet still creating much controversy in Israel as the spokesperson of the settlements asked Tel Aviv’s governor to also block the plans  intended for Palestinians in retaliation.

Initially the Israeli press spoke of a directive that prevented the 28 member states from dealing with the settlements, but today Maja Kocijancic, the spokesperson for Catherine Ashton, the High Representative for EU Foreign Affairs, specified that the measure “concerns only EU programs, those that are financed by the community budget,” but “it is not binding for the member states.” This is an internal decision for the next multi-year budget, the one for the period 2014-2020 which covers all cooperation and research programs but doesn’t affect the trade of goods.

“The Council of Foreign Affairs in its December conclusions highlighted the importance of limiting the application of the agreements with Israel to the territories recognized by the EU” recalled Kocijancic. With the publication of the new guidelines in the gazzetta ufficiale (publication where every law must be published before it goes into effect) this Friday “all agreements between Israel and the EU must specify that they apply only to the territories of 1967,” this is because, the spokesperson emphasized, “the territories occupied since 1967 are illegal under international law” and Brussels doesn’t recognize any sovereignty in Tel Aviv. This however, continued Ashton’s spokesperson, doesn’t mean there will be fewer “the new opportunities offered by the European Neighborhood Policy” which entitle them to Israel “to participate in some EU programs and access financing instruments” as foreseen by the new multi-year financial budget, for example the “Horizon 2020 Program for research and innovation.”

According to reports from the daily newspaper Haaretz, yesterday a senior Israeli official called this decision “an earthquake” because it is the “first time such a guideline becomes official for a body of the European Union,” instead first “in any case the rule was active but was never formalized.”

About 500,000 settlers, who control 43% of the territory and most of the natural and water resources between the West Bank and East Jerusalem, live in the occupied Israeli territories since 1967.

According to a report published a few months ago by a coalition of 22 non-governmental organizations, the European states have a volume of business with them 100 time greater than with the Palestinians. And as if that were not enough, according to the study, the EU is not capable of successfully directing its cooperation with the State of Israel and more than once its funds ended up supporting the settlements. At least like this it will be much more difficult for this to happen after next Friday.

Both government officials in Tel Aviv and the settlements criticized the measures from Brussels. “All the European projects (for Palestinians, editor’s note) in Judea and Samaria must be blocked until this unilateral decision is stopped” declared the Council of Hebrews in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. The reply from the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was also harsh “We will not accept – said Netanyahu – any external edicts regarding borders.” The issue of the occupied territories added the Prime Minister “is an issue that can be decided only in direct negotiations between the parties.” Even the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zeev Elkin, defined the decision as “very significant and worrisome” adding that “certainly it does not help improve the climate of peace negotiations, on the contrary, it incites the Palestinians not to return to the negotiation table.”