Secret EU report launches scathing attack on Israel
Topic(s): Palestine / Israel | Comments Off on Secret EU report launches scathing attack on IsraelSecret EU report launches scathing attack on Israel
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
The Independent/UK
Published: 25 November 2005
European governments should consider direct intervention in an attempt
to curb the systematic measures being undertaken by Israel to increase
its control and population in the historically – and legally – Arab
eastern sector of Jerusalem, a highly sensitive EU report concludes.
The confidential report, prepared by top diplomats representing
the 25 EU governments in the city, warns that the chances of a
two-state solution are being eroded by Israel’s “deliberate policy”
– in breach of international of law – of “completing the annexation
of East Jerusalem”.
European Foreign Ministers this week vetoed planned publication
of the report – which also warns that rapid expansion of Jewish
settlements in and around East Jerusalem, along with use of the
separation barrier to isolate East Jerusalem from the West Bank,
“risk radicalising the hitherto relatively quiescent Palestinian
population of East Jerusalem”.
The report provides the most detailed and remorselessly critical
account yet produced by a Western international body of Israel’s
policy in East Jerusalem, which has been occupied since its seizure
in the 1967 Six Day War. It points out that Jerusalem “is already one
of the trickiest issues” on the road to a final peace deal between
Israel and the Palestinians. It adds that, as a result of the measures,
“prospects for a two state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital
of Palestine are receding”.
Among the recommendations in the report, drafted in October during
the British EU presidency which ends next month, the EU is urged to
consider a series of steps including direct support for projects that
help Palestinians to conduct legal battles against house demolitions,
which it points out tripled in the city during 2004, and the persistent
refusal to grant building permits to all but a small minority of
Palestinians. The report also suggests holding meetings with the
Palestinian leadership in East Jerusalem, presumably to demonstrate
that – contrary to the Israeli government’s goal of Jerusalem as its
“undivided capital” – it sees East Jerusalem as the future capital
of a Palestinian state.
The EU foreign ministers’ meeting was widely reported in Israel to have
decided against publication of the report in its present form because
of the risk to its relationship with the Jewish state especially when
for the first time Israel has given its blessing to the EU having a
key security role in the region by monitoring the Rafah crossing point
from Gaza into Egypt. The EU will be represented at senior level at
a ceremonial opening of the crossing by the Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas today.
The 11-page report, leaked to The Independent, says the E1 project
for a major expansion of Ma’ale Adumim, the largest Israeli West
Bank settlement, to join it to Jerusalem “threatens to complete the
encircling of the city by Jewish settlements, dividing the West Bank
into two separate geographical areas.”
It says that, while the present 30,000 residents of the settlement
at present occupy only 15 per cent of the planned area, the total
plan envisages an area of 53 square miles – “larger than Tel Aviv”
– extending through the West Bank between Jerusalem and Jericho.
While the plans will divide the West Bank from itself and from East
Jerusalem, the report says “the economic prospects of the West Bank
[which has a GDP per year per head of $1,000] are highly dependent on
access to East Jerusalem [GDP of $3,500]. It adds: “From an economic
perspective, the viability of a Palestinian state depends to a great
extent on the preservation of organic links between East Jerusalem,
Ramallah and Bethlehem”.
The document says when the separation barrier is completed, Israel
will “control all access to and from East Jerusalem, cutting off its
Palestinian satellite cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah, and the rest
of the West Bank beyond.
This will have serious economic, social and humanitarian consequences
for the Palestinians. By vigorously applying policies on residency and
ID status, Israel will be able finally to complete the isolation of
East Jerusalem – the political commercial and infrastructural centre
of Palestinian life.”
It adds: “Israel’s activities in Jerusalem are in violation of both
its Roadmap obligations and international law. We and others in the
international community have made our concerns clear on numerous
occasions with varying effect. Palestinians are, without exception,
deeply alarmed about East Jerusalem.
They fear that Israel will ‘get away with it’ under cover of
disengagement [from Gaza].” The document says smaller Jewish
settlements inside Palestinian areas are sometimes installed by
would-be settlers “preying on Palestinians suffering financial hardship
or simply [occupying] properties by force”.
Besides suggesting that a formal call by the EU and the US-led
international quarter on Israel to stop prejudicing final status
negotiations by its actions in East Jerusalem would be “timely”,
one proposal is for the EU to consider “excluding East Jerusalem from
certain EU/Israel joint co-operation activities.” While the document
does not say so, this could realistically mean halting European
funding for road, rail and projects which contribute to the process
of annexation.
The reports says the purpose of keeping West Bank ID holders out of
East Jerusalem and East Jerusalem ID holders out of the West Bank “is
almost certainly demographic , to reduce the Palestinian population
of Jerusalem while exerting efforts to boost the number of Israelis
living in the city – East and West.”
European governments should consider direct intervention in an attempt
to curb the systematic measures being undertaken by Israel to increase
its control and population in the historically – and legally – Arab
eastern sector of Jerusalem, a highly sensitive EU report concludes.
The confidential report, prepared by top diplomats representing
the 25 EU governments in the city, warns that the chances of a
two-state solution are being eroded by Israel’s “deliberate policy”
– in breach of international of law – of “completing the annexation
of East Jerusalem”.
European Foreign Ministers this week vetoed planned publication
of the report – which also warns that rapid expansion of Jewish
settlements in and around East Jerusalem, along with use of the
separation barrier to isolate East Jerusalem from the West Bank,
“risk radicalising the hitherto relatively quiescent Palestinian
population of East Jerusalem”.
The report provides the most detailed and remorselessly critical
account yet produced by a Western international body of Israel’s
policy in East Jerusalem, which has been occupied since its seizure
in the 1967 Six Day War. It points out that Jerusalem “is already one
of the trickiest issues” on the road to a final peace deal between
Israel and the Palestinians. It adds that, as a result of the measures,
“prospects for a two state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital
of Palestine are receding”.
Among the recommendations in the report, drafted in October during
the British EU presidency which ends next month, the EU is urged to
consider a series of steps including direct support for projects that
help Palestinians to conduct legal battles against house demolitions,
which it points out tripled in the city during 2004, and the persistent
refusal to grant building permits to all but a small minority of
Palestinians. The report also suggests holding meetings with the
Palestinian leadership in East Jerusalem, presumably to demonstrate
that – contrary to the Israeli government’s goal of Jerusalem as its
“undivided capital” – it sees East Jerusalem as the future capital
of a Palestinian state.
The EU foreign ministers’ meeting was widely reported in Israel to have
decided against publication of the report in its present form because
of the risk to its relationship with the Jewish state especially when
for the first time Israel has given its blessing to the EU having a
key security role in the region by monitoring the Rafah crossing point
from Gaza into Egypt. The EU will be represented at senior level at
a ceremonial opening of the crossing by the Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas today.
The 11-page report, leaked to The Independent, says the E1 project
for a major expansion of Ma’ale Adumim, the largest Israeli West
Bank settlement, to join it to Jerusalem “threatens to complete the
encircling of the city by Jewish settlements, dividing the West Bank
into two separate geographical areas.”
It says that, while the present 30,000 residents of the settlement
at present occupy only 15 per cent of the planned area, the total
plan envisages an area of 53 square miles – “larger than Tel Aviv”
– extending through the West Bank between Jerusalem and Jericho.
While the plans will divide the West Bank from itself and from East
Jerusalem, the report says “the economic prospects of the West Bank
[which has a GDP per year per head of $1,000] are highly dependent on
access to East Jerusalem [GDP of $3,500]. It adds: “From an economic
perspective, the viability of a Palestinian state depends to a great
extent on the preservation of organic links between East Jerusalem,
Ramallah and Bethlehem”.
The document says when the separation barrier is completed, Israel
will “control all access to and from East Jerusalem, cutting off its
Palestinian satellite cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah, and the rest
of the West Bank beyond.
This will have serious economic, social and humanitarian consequences
for the Palestinians. By vigorously applying policies on residency and
ID status, Israel will be able finally to complete the isolation of
East Jerusalem – the political commercial and infrastructural centre
of Palestinian life.”
It adds: “Israel’s activities in Jerusalem are in violation of both
its Roadmap obligations and international law. We and others in the
international community have made our concerns clear on numerous
occasions with varying effect. Palestinians are, without exception,
deeply alarmed about East Jerusalem.
They fear that Israel will ‘get away with it’ under cover of
disengagement [from Gaza].” The document says smaller Jewish
settlements inside Palestinian areas are sometimes installed by
would-be settlers “preying on Palestinians suffering financial hardship
or simply [occupying] properties by force”.
Besides suggesting that a formal call by the EU and the US-led
international quarter on Israel to stop prejudicing final status
negotiations by its actions in East Jerusalem would be “timely”,
one proposal is for the EU to consider “excluding East Jerusalem from
certain EU/Israel joint co-operation activities.” While the document
does not say so, this could realistically mean halting European
funding for road, rail and projects which contribute to the process
of annexation.
The reports says the purpose of keeping West Bank ID holders out of
East Jerusalem and East Jerusalem ID holders out of the West Bank “is
almost certainly demographic , to reduce the Palestinian population
of Jerusalem while exerting efforts to boost the number of Israelis
living in the city – East and West.”