Fury over EU settlement ruling

All Israeli institutions must sign a declaration saying they don’t operate in the settlements if they want to receive European Union funding, Brussels announced this week.

According to the new guidelines of the European Commission, as of next year governmental and non-governmental organisations will be ineligible for funding if they have a presence in West Bank settlements. The same applies to other areas that Israel captured in 1967, namely East Jerusalem and the Golan.

“These guidelines were prepared in order to implement the commission’s commitment to make a distinction in relevant EU legislation between the State of Israel and the occupied territories,” the EU said in a statement.

The guidelines could set the stage for a major confrontation between Brussels and Jerusalem.

When funding allocations require state approval, Jerusalem will need to give written approval to a declaration toeing the EU’s line that the settlements aren’t part of Israel – or lose the funding.

A senior Israeli official hinted during a conversation with The AJN that Israel will stand firm and lose the funding if necessary. “They’ve created an inextricable situation with this,” he said, commenting that the EU should realise that it “can’t force and dictate a position on a foreign government”.

He claimed: “The unacceptable part of these guidelines is not that they reiterate the traditional EU position [on settlements] but that they will now force the Israeli party to accept explicitly and in writing the EU position and accept it as their own.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded angrily to the EU, saying that Israel won’t accept “external edicts” on its borders.

However, the EU has insisted that it is within its rights to institute the policy, and that it will actually prevent calls for it to boycott Israel out of concerns that assistance for Israel will end up in settlements. Brussels said that it “wants to be sure that Israel’s participation is not put in question”.

The Yesha Council, the settler umbrella organisation, has responded by calling on the Israeli government to edge the EU out of all peace efforts. “I expect from the government of Israel to tell the EU that such an extremist position means that it has no part in the peace process with the Palestinians,” the council’s chief international envoy Dani Dayan told The AJN.

He said that if the EU does not fund Israeli projects in the West Bank it shouldn’t fund Palestinian projects either, and called on the Israeli government to block projects for Palestinians wherever it can.

NATHAN JEFFAY