EU Involved in Implanting Israeli Colonies In Palestine
By Kawther.info, December 2, 2013 / PressTV, November 12, 2012
On November 27th, Michael Deas, ECCP representative and coordinator in Europe with the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), gave a talk in the European Parliament about European businesses involvement in illegal Israeli settlements. It was the first time that the topic of EU involvement in illegal Israeli settlements was presented in detail in the European Parliament by a civil society organization.
European businesses play a major role in funding, facilitating and supporting Israeli violations of international law and illegal Israeli settlements in three main ways:
- Providing products and services that facilitate the existence of illegal settlements (Veolia, G4S, Volvo Group etc)
- Importing and selling goods produced by companies operating in illegal Israeli settlements (Mehadrin, Soda Stream and Ahava)
- Investing in settlement companies and projects (Dexia, Barclays)
- During his talk Michael pointed out that third states have a duty to prevent businesses from contributing to violations of international law and human rights. By their involvement in settlement trade, states implicitly legalise a situation arising from a violation of international law, and thus violate their duty to prevent these violations. He also gave an overview of recent BDS campaigns taking place in Europe. He presented ECCP’s recommendations to the EU, which are:
- Cease all trade with Israeli export companies that operate inside illegal Israeli settlements,
- Avoid involvement or investment in the provision of infrastructure products and services to illegal Israeli settlements such as transport, waste and environmental services, given that such projects violate international law
- End all investment in companies, projects and businesses operating inside illegal Israeli settlements, by divesting existing investments
- Conduct a Human Rights Impact Assessment of its trade agreements with Israel, given that companies operating in illegal Israeli settlements are able to export produce to Europe using procedures put in place by these agreements.
- Encourage its member states to withdraw state support from and not procure services from companies that refuse to address their contribution to human rights violations.
Lip Service to Peace: EU Enables Netanyahu’s Colonial Policies
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No other issue highlights European inconsistency, hypocrisy and even self-defeating policies as that of the EU stance regarding the illegal Jewish settlements in occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the West Bank. All the firm statements about the EU’s commitment to international law pertaining to the illegality of the settlements, all the warnings that the ever-encroaching colonial structures impede any chances — if any exist — of a two-state solution, and all the rest, are no more than declared policies that stand in almost complete contradiction to reality on the ground.
Not only does the EU do little to show real resolve in discouraging the growth of the settlements — which now occupy nearly 42 percent of the total size of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem) and most of their natural resources — but, in brazenly direct ways, it actually funds the growth of these very settlements. The oddity is that the EU does so while continuing to be a major funder of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and tireless advocate of the two-state solution.
But how can the EU advocate the very ‘solution’ that is itself effectively involved in its demise? Mere hypocrisy — discrepancy between rhetoric and action, or is the EU’s attitude part of a decided foreign policy agenda that is much greater than the political will of individual countries?
Facts and numbers unmistakably demonstrate EU complicity, complacency and direct investment in the Israeli colonial project. In a new report entitled, “Trading Away Peace: How Europe helps sustain illegal Israeli settlements,” twenty-two NGOs expose a most revealing European duplicity. The NGOs included major organizations such as Christian Aid and the International Federation for Human Rights.
“The most recent estimate of the value of EU imports from settlements provided by the Israeli [regime] to the World Bank is $300m (€230m) a year; this is approximately fifteen times the annual value of EU imports from Palestinians,” the report showed. “With more than four million Palestinians and over 500,000 Israeli settlers living in the occupied territory, this means the EU imports over 100 times more per settler than per Palestinian.”
Europe is Israel’s largest trade partner, followed by the United States. Without such major trade routes, the Israeli economy is likely to suffer the consequences of Israeli regime policies. Moreover, the amount cited above is likely much larger since much of Israeli products originating in the occupied territories are marketed under the ‘Made in Israel’ label, simply because many settlements-based companies have branches in Israel.
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