EU Meddling

Reported:

The European Commission said Israel's policy of refusing to dismantle settlements is strangling the Palestinian economy and forcing the Palestinian Authority to rely on foreign aid.

"[I]t is the European taxpayers who pay most of the price of this dependence," including US 280 million dollars so far this year, because settlements prevent the PA from functioning normally, the commission said, according to the AP.

Among its complaints included the expropriation of privately owned Palestinian land for illegal West Bank settlements and the existence of a network of roads open only to settlers and Israelis, as well as the hundreds of checkpoints throughout the territory.

Response:

The Israeli Foreign Ministry held a meeting with the EU ambassador demanding an explanation to a statement by the European Commission in which it said that the Israeli settlement policy is strangling the Palestinian economy and forcing the Palestinian aid to depend on foreign aid.

Background:

Freezing settlement activities in the West Bank is a prerequisite for resuming Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations, but “serious developments” on the ground are also needed in other fields, Swedish Ambassador to Jordan Charlotta Sparre said on Sunday.

“It is not only enough to freeze settlements… The access of movement is an absolutely crucial factor in getting any economic development moving,” the envoy said in a press conference yesterday.

“Right now we see much more of a global international awareness of the importance of addressing this specific issue. But I also think there is great awareness among the ministers in Brussels that freezing settlements is not enough,” Sparre added.

Sparre, whose country took over the six-month rotating presidency of the 27-member EU on July 1, said the union has been “extremely vocal over a very long period of time” about the issue of settlements, but added that “unless there is serious international pressure, including from the US, it is very difficult to see any real development”.

Noting that the EU will continue to play an active role in the Mideast peace process, she said Jordan and the EU will work “very closely” together over the next few months in this regard.

She also stressed that the EU supports the two-state solution, calling it “the only viable option that we see at this time in history”.