Brussels, 17/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 16 July, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, denounced the European Union note and guidelines on loans, subsidies and financial instruments from the EU, limiting their use as of 2014 to the territory of Israel, thus excluding the settlements (see EUROPE 10889). The prime minister's office asserted that “we will not accept external diktats on our borders”. It added that “this question will only be decided as part of direct negotiations between the parties”.
According to the Israeli prime minister, “the Europeans appear to have a distorted sense of priority… I would have thought that those who are concerned about peace and stability in the region would not raise such a question until after settling problems that are slightly more urgent, such as the civil war in Syria and Iran's race to obtain nuclear weapons for itself”.
In an extract from an interview that appeared on 21 July in the newspaper, Die Welt, published by Welt am Sonntag, the Israeli prime minister said that this decision “is an attempt to draw Israel's borders by force, through economic pressure rather than through negotiations”. Netanyahu said that this “strengthens the Palestinian position and makes Israel lose its confidence in Europe's neutrality” in the peace process. Netanyahu considers that the note creates “a political and economic Berlin Wall at the centre of Jerusalem” and that going back to the 1967 borders cannot be envisaged because it would endanger the existence of Israel as a state. He explained that, now that the Americans were committed to relaunching the peace process, “this decision has just undermined their efforts”. One European source explained that the note did not intend to impose any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that the solution had to be negotiated with regard to the question of borders, refugees, Jerusalem and security.
On 16 July, the Israeli prime minister arranged a meeting with the minister for justice, Tzipi Livni, who was also the negotiator in chief with their Palestinian counterparts and the minister for trade and deputy minister for foreign affairs, Zeev Elkin, to discuss this note. Livni described the European decision as “worrying”. In a press release, she said that “it is sad that we've got to this point but now everyone understands that negotiations are the only way of protecting our diplomatic interests”.
The Palestinian government described the European initiative as “an important step towards halting the construction of the settlements and putting an end to the occupation”. The Palestinian minister for the economy, Jawad Naji, emphasised that “this is a positive message that demonstrates that the international community is now taking practical measures to punish Israel for its infringements”. He added that “we hope that this European measure will lead to a final decision banning all Israeli products from the settlements, in Europe”. The EU is currently considering labelling of products from the settlements but not banning them (see EUROPE 10849).
EU support for international law comes as no surprise
Speaking on Twitter, the Swedish minister for foreign affairs, Carl Bildt, explained that it was no surprise “that the EU supports international law in efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East”. He also asked: “Did Israel really expect the EU to fund the expansion of illegal settlements?” The Middle East peace process will be discussed during the Foreign Affairs Council on 22 July. (CG/transl.fl)