Palestinian police stand guard at EU offices in Gaza [Ma'anImages]

Bethlehem - Ma'an - Israel and the European Union (EU) voted to upgrade relations on Monday, despite opposition to the agreement by human rights advocates and Arab states.

The motion to improve relations was approved by a unanimous vote of all 27 EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Monday. Israel's new prime minister will greet the body at its headquarters in April, its Foreign Ministry announced.

Following the proposal's passage, Program Director Sergio Yahni of the Jerusalem-based Alternative Information Center (AIC) called Monday’s vote "a failure of the international legal system."

In a telephone interview with Ma’an, Yahni said the agreement is "the first time since World War II that the European community has actually regressed in its protection of human rights."

"But the most shameful thing is that Arab states could have threatened to stop the proceedings, could have intervened," Yahni noted. "Instead, they did nothing."

In a show of Israel's new standing in the international body, EU ministers also voted to drop a proposed action plan for the Middle East peace process in 2009--at Israel's request.

One week earlier, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni insisted that Israel still seeks a final-status settlement with the Palestinians, according to comments made at an EU-sponsored summit in Brussels.

Speaking to the EU's Foreign Affairs Committee last Tuesday, Livni said that it is no longer official Israeli policy to expand settlements in the West Bank, insisting, "I can assure you that we are not going to build new settlements; we are not going to confiscate land or extend settlements."

"These were policies of the past that don't represent the opinions of the vast majority of Israelis today," Livni added.

She also said that continuing negotiations that began in Annapolis is essential to achieving peace, but claimed that too much international intervention "can only lead to failure, a failure that nobody can afford--Israel, Palestine or the international community."

Last Wednesday, the European Parliament (EP) suspended its vote on whether or not to upgrade EU-Israel relations in the wake of increasing unrest around Israeli settlement-building policies and the continued Gaza siege.

Vice President of the European Parliament Luisa Morgantini issued a statement about the decision, saying, "It's time for the Israeli government to stop considering itself above the law and start respecting it."

The suspended proposal was submitted by the EU Commission and Council and recommended the completion of a set of guidelines by which Israel would participate in programs set up by the European community. The vote was scheduled to take place Thursday.

According to Morgantini, the vote would be an important step in the process of upgrading EU-Israel relations. The move itself was requested by Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni.

Initial reservations

Last Wednesday, however, the majority of European parliamentarians called for a postponement of the vote. Several parties within the EP requested that no date for the vote be set.

Responding to that incident, Morgantini had sharp words for the Israeli government concerning changes would have to occur before the EP would improve ties.

"Today's vote is an important political message directed not against Israel, but at pushing the Israeli leadership to respect their obligations in order to achieve tangible results from the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, so that they can reach a peaceful solution and the security of the two peoples," Morgantini said.

"It is also a signal to the EU Council and Commission that they must put pressure on Israel to stop its colonization of the 1967 occupied Palestinian territory."

Morgantini noted that the then-hypothetical vote was a "sign of hope for the Palestinians, telling them that the European Parliament is not deaf to the suffering of people in Gaza and the West Bank."

She added that the EP "is not only determined to verbally criticize the situation but to take concrete action for the respect of human rights and international law."

Several European countries, had previously raised objections after the issue was raised by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Five EU members, Belgium, Cyprus, Ireland, Malta and the United Kingdom, had expressed initial reservations.

Restricting their signing of the upgrade agreement with a demand that Israel’s relations with the EU be conditional on progress in the Israel-Palestine final-status negotiations, the five member states could have ended the vote before it started.

However, Livni’s trip to Brussels and subsequent promises on halting settlement expansion apparently convinced the five objectors to agree to the proposal.

According to the agreement, Israel’s foreign minister will now meet with each of the EU countries’ ministers at least once every year. Israel will be included in the EU’s "strategic dialogue" on Middle Eastern affairs, as well as enjoy improved standing in United Nations (UN) agencies.


***Updated 14:14 Bethlehem time

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Europe and the Bitter Pill of the Israeli Occupation

01 december 2008

By Hilla Dayan

 

In June this year the EU stated its readiness to further intensify relations with Israel in the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy. Despite the fact that the EU has standard procedures that are supposed to apply to all ENP candidates, Israel’s peculiar standing in this process is striking. The process normally requires a country to undergo extensive reforms, monitored over a period of at least five years, as spelled out in an Action Plan. Israel’s Action Plan is set for three years only, and has so far hollowed out any conditionality standing in the way of meteoric progress. Some member states support the upgrade without posing any conditions beyond a single bullet point in the Action Plan, which refers to human rights in the most general terms possible. This way Israel would become a semi-member of the Union absent of legal obligations. This comes as no surprise to the international human rights community, who is used to the pattern of absolving Israel from its obligations under international law.  

 

A much less known aspect of EU-Israel relations nevertheless is the conspicuous absence of any reference to the territorial scope of the agreements. Israel made it clear it would not sign any agreement with the EU if the scope of its application explicitly excludes the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In other words, every agreement the EU makes with Israel necessarily applies to this sovereign entity as a whole, occupied territories and illegal settlements included. That means, that more the EU intensifies relations with Israel, the more it ties itself politically and economically to a sovereign, whose grip over the occupied territories has been unshaken and is poised to continue well into the future. The Israeli occupation should be put to an end through the effective enforcement of International Law. Accepting Israel as a European neighbour absent of conditionality, however, ensures exactly the opposite: a blow to international law. That Europe embroils itself ever more deeply in a commitment to Israel with the occupation comes with a price tag attached. Europe has been forced to pay for the cost of the occupation ever more generously through aid.

 

It is clear why Israeli officials see it as a national interest to strengthen ties with Europe, while remaining free of the obligation to end the occupation and withdraw to the 1967 borders. It is not clear why it is a European interest to accept Israel into its midst without making the end of the occupation a condition. In effect, the condition Israel itself sets for its integration is that the EU accepts an entrenched military dictatorship as part of the deal. But, can Europe accept that?

 

There are a number of ways in which Europe can take a distinct stand upholding conditionality in such a manner, which will force Israel to choose between European integration and the occupation. Respect for International Law must be defended from the potentially irreparable damage of accommodating a military dictatorship. Israel should be pressed to stop dragging its feet and accept the EU requirement that a formal sub-committee on human rights is created in the ENP process. The EU should take measures to ensure that the Jewish settlement economy will not benefit from preferential trade status. In short, the EU should not embrace the occupation in contradiction with its core principles and interests, as well as with legal commitments under International and European Law. The EU must make "greater Israel" a no go for upgrading relations, instead of swallowing this bitter pill and paying the bill.

 

Hilla Dayan PhD is an Israeli political scientist working for United Civilians for Peace, a Dutch platform that strives for a just solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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© Hilla Dayan. Dit artikel is in aangepaste vorm geplaatst in European Voice van 6 november.


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