Europe is different, as we
are often reminded. The general wisdom is unlike
the United States’ unconditional support for
Israel. European countries tend to be more
balanced in their approach to the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Their politicians
are less receptive to being bought and sold by
pro-Israeli lobbies. Their media is far more
inclusive in their coverage - unlike the staunchly
one-sided US mainstream media that, at times, are
far more pro-Israel than Israeli media itself.
While one must concede that no single
country’s foreign policy is a carbon copy of
another, there is little evidence that sets the
European Union (EU) apart as a platform of
even-handedness and political sensibility. Unlike
the US however, European bias is far more
inconspicuous and purposely so.
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
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% of the
total size of the West Bank and East 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", 22 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 government to the World Bank is $300m a
year; this is approximately 15 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 government
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.
A case in point is
SodaStream, which produces an at-home carbonation
device. The vast majority (over 70%) of its
products are sold in European countries, despite
the fact that the manufacturing of the product
takes place in Ma'ale Adumim, a Jewish settlement
built illegally over Palestinian land in East
Jerusalem and constantly in a state of expansion.
Companies based in illegal settlements
receive generous tax breaks and other incentives,
as in using "Jewish-only" roads, which
Palestinians are not allowed to use, although the
roads are constructed on their land. "Because the
company also maintains a factory in Israel," wrote
Eline Gordts in the Huffington Post, it can sell
its products under the label 'Made in Israel'."
Such strategy can be successful in avoiding the
formality of branding products made in Jewish
settlements as such, which is applied by two
European countries.
The EU has little
quarrel with being a major market that keeps the
settlements prosperous and economically
competitive. It is in fact doing its utmost to
integrate the Israeli economy into the larger
European market.
The latest of such
efforts took place on October 23 when the European
Parliament ratified the EU-Israel Agreement on
Conformity Assessment and Acceptance (ACAA).
The ratification is barely an isolated
gesture, for it is part of ceaseless efforts that
go back to the 1995 Association Agreement, which
supposedly meant to reward Israel for its
peacemaking efforts and help it break away from
its regional isolation. Despite Israel's incessant
efforts at colonizing much of the West Bank,
continued "legal" and physical isolation of
occupied East Jerusalem, and protracted siege on
Gaza, the EU has done little to underscore any
objection to Israel's violation of international
law.
"It is worth remembering," wrote
Emanuele Scimia on this web site, "that on July 24
the European Council, the EU's decision-making
body, already agreed to upgrade trade and
diplomatic relations with Israel in more than 60
sectors." (See Trade
tilts balance in EU-Israeli ties, November 10,
2012.)
Rife with contradictions, European
countries continue to tread with the same odd
logic of supporting settlements and criticizing
them at the same time. Three European powers -
Germany, Britain and France - joined forces from
Berlin on November 6 criticizing Israel over its
recent decision to permit the construction of over
1,200 units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
"Our clear expectation of all sides in the
Middle East is that they refrain from anything
that will make the resumption of negotiations more
difficult," German Foreign Minister Guido
Westerwelle said. He called Israel's settlement
policy "a hindrance to the peace process."
In fact, this is the tip of the iceberg
because according to the NGOs report "over the
past two years, settlement expansion has
accelerated with more than 16,000 new housing
units announced or approved."
That policy
is likely to continue with unprecedented ferocity
since the right-wing government of Benjamin
Netanyahu made it clear that settlements
construction is the cornerstone of his policies,
especially once he receives a new mandate
following the upcoming elections.
The
growth of the settlements is accompanied by a
parallel destruction of "Palestinian structures -
including those funded by European donor support."
Neither is the EU actively defending its declared
policies regarding settlements, nor is it taking
any meaningful legal action against the systematic
Israeli destruction of EU-funded projects in the
occupied territories.
Even worse,
according to the report, "some European-owned
companies have invested in settlements and related
infrastructure or are providing services to them.
Cases that have been reported include G4S
(UK/Denmark), Alstom (France), Veolia (France),
and Heidelberg Cement (Germany) ..."
European policies may seem irrational at
the surface - as in, for example, Germany
criticizing Israeli settlements, yet permitting
Heidelberg Cement to profit from the occupation.
But political absurdity is not exactly a trait of
European politics, nor can such contradictions
last for so long, if political incongruity was not
itself the very policy that the EU wishes to
pursue.
Indeed, the EU foreign policies
regarding Palestine/Israel are different from
those of the United States, while the latter is
openly one-sided and "unconditionally" so, the
former is deviously complicit in ensuring the very
occupation that it is supposedly trying to end.
Ramzy Baroud (ramzybaroud.net) is an
internationally syndicated columnist and the
editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book
is My
Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold
Story.
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