A number of activists and academics called on the European Union to take action against the ever-increasing Israeli colonisation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, during a debate in the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs on Thursday 11 December.
According to Israeli activist Dror Etkes, by 2025 more than 33,000 settlement units had been approved or built in the West Bank, three times as many as the previous year, and just over 3,700 in East Jerusalem. Added to this are the ever-increasing demolition of Palestinian buildings and the declaration of Israeli state zones in the West Bank “to appropriate territory”. There are estimated to be between 600,000 and 700,000 settlers.
“All these years, the EU and the Member States have criticised the settlement policy, but this has not been followed by any real gestures or concrete measures, prevented by the realpolitik that should nevertheless lead to the possibility of maintaining a two-state solution”, was the criticism from political scientist Muriel Asseburg (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik), noting the opinion of the International Court of Justice in 2024. “One important measure that would make the EU’s approach consistent with the ICJ’s opinion would be to end trade between the settlements and the EU and to introduce visas for settlers (to enter the EU)”, she explained.
According to draft conclusions dated 8 December, to be adopted by the European Council on 18 and 19 December (https://aeur.eu/f/jx3 ), European leaders could call on the Israeli government to halt the expansion of settlements, which are “illegal under international law”, and to protect the Palestinian population in the occupied territories.
At the European Parliament hearing, Shaqued Morag, the European representative of The Platform, a coalition of Israeli human rights NGOs, noted that the extension of the E1 zone had long been a red line and wondered what other red line Israel would have to cross for the EU “to do more than simply condemn the actions, but to finally contribute to putting an end to the physical, but also political violence faced by the Palestinians” (see EUROPE 13694/19). The European Council should also reiterate its call on the EU Council to continue work on new restrictive measures against extremist settlers and the entities and organisations that support them.
While European leaders are expected to reiterate the EU’s support for a two-state solution, Ben Gurion University professor David Newman believes that such a solution would be difficult to implement for pragmatic reasons, with the “creeping” presence of settlements. “This is a difficult question, which requires us to change the way we look at it, to move away from the idea of a two-state solution, which is very simplistic. In practical terms, this cannot work”, he added. For Muriel Asseburg, the right to self-determination of peoples, which safeguards the principle of either two states, a bi-national state or a confederation, must be the basis.
In addition, the speakers - like many MEPs - criticised the fact that no representative of the Palestinians had been invited to take part in the hearing. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)