Question. Who’s funding illegal Palestinian settlements in Area C? Nearly 10,000 cases - by Edwin Black

To create a de facto Palestinian state without further negotiation or even diplomatic consultation with the Israelis, European countries—individually and through the European Union—have pumped hundreds of millions of euros annually into scores of illegal building.

Edwin Black..
JNS.org..
15 August '19..

“Area C,” which comprises some 60 percent of the West Bank, also known as Judea and Samaria, has become highly volatile again. In the past, debate has centered on Jewish settlements. Now, “illegal Palestinian settlements” sprouting across the region are under the spotlight.

According to Israeli activist watchdog groups such as Regavim, during the last five years, illegal Palestinian settlements and infrastructure have sprawled across more than 9,000 dunams in more than 250 Area C locations, supported by more than 600 kilometers of illegally constructed access roads and more than 112,000 meters of retaining walls and terracing. This massive works project is being conducted in broad daylight, often heralded by tall announcement placards and press releases.

Israeli government officials contacted did not dispute the Regavim numbers. In exasperation, one military spokesman close to the Area C files estimated “close to 10,000” illegal construction efforts are now underway, adding they feel “powerless to stop them.”

(Continue to Full Column)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Surprise? EU to cover Palestinian Authority salaries and pensions for month of April - by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

The P.A. cut salaries of public employees by 50 percent to continue to fund terrorists and their families after Israel began withholding tax revenues earlier this year.

Itamar Marcus/Nan Jacques Zilberdik..
JNS.org..
12 May '19..

The European Union has pledging to give the Palestinian Authority 15 million euros to cover the salaries of public employees—salaries that leader Mahmoud Abbas cut to keep up the P.A.’s payments to imprisoned and released terrorists, wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorists.

Abbas has declared that the P.A. is “obligated” to continue rewarding the terrorist prisoners and families of so-called “martyrs.”

Earlier this year, Israel decided to withhold from the tax money it collects on behalf of the P.A. an amount equaling the sum the P.A. pays to terrorist prisoners. These prisoners include mass murderers and heads of terror organizations. In response, the P.A. has refused to accept all the tax money, amounting to over 50 percent of its budget, thereby inflicting a serious financial crisis on itself.

To overcome this crisis—and in order to have money available to continue to pay the terrorists in full—the P.A. cut the salaries of its public employees by 50 percent.

According to the Palestinian Media Watch NGO, Abbas then turned to Europe for money, claiming Israel was responsible for the P.A.’s self-inflicted crisis.

The European Union has now answered his appeal.

(Continue to Full Column)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Europe's Collusion in Palestinian Brazen Stealing of Arab-owned Land - by Ruthie Blum

...It takes particular gall for European Union representatives to express "humanitarian" outrage at Israel for razing illegal structures in the West Bank -- while the EU is in league with Palestinian criminals who have been brazenly stealing Arab-owned land.

Ruthie Blum..
Gatestone Institute..
15 November '17..

In what is being called an "unprecedented move," eight European countries -- members of an initiative called the West Bank Protection Consortium -- recently announced that they had drafted a formal letter to the Israeli government, demanding the reimbursement of €30,000. According to Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Luxembourg, Ireland and Denmark, this was the sum spent by the Consortium on materials provided for two structures (modular classrooms equipped with solar panels) erected for Palestinians and Bedouin in the West Bank, and dismantled by Israel at the end of August.

What these EU countries failed to mention, however, is that the structures were illegal, and therefore should not have been built in the first place. Instead, in its letter, the Consortium accused Israel of causing "suffering to Palestinian civilians," through its "practice of coercive measures such as demolitions and confiscations of humanitarian supplies as well as infrastructure for schools," and of "contradict[ing] Israel's engagement according to the international point of view..."

This is worse than disingenuous.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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The EU's Double Standard - by Itai Reuveni

...Unless the EU addresses its clear double standards, no video will be able to honestly speak to Israeli society, regardless of the narrator. 

Itai Reuveni..
Opinion/JPost..
15 August '17..
Link: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-European-Unions-double-standard-502512

On July 26, the European Union Delegation to Israel posted a promotional video highlighting the importance of EU-Israel relations. The film is narrated by Avishai Ivry, an Israeli journalist identified with the Right. Ivry’s involvement drew criticism from across the political spectrum.

Complaints from the Right included, “How dare you promote those who try to meddle in our society?” – referring to the massive European government funding of political organizations operating in Israel. The Left asked, “How dare you oppose foreign funding and simultaneously work for the EU?” – again highlighting European funding of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), but this time condemning Ivry’s “hypocrisy” in disagreeing with the funding while also being paid to promote the EU.

The criticism, from both Left and Right, acutely reflects Israeli public discourse regarding the EU’s involvement in domestic affairs.

Beyond the partisan debate in Israel, the fringe anti-peace (and at times antisemetic) website Electronic Intifada discovered a number of Ivry’s past tweets against Palestinians.

Electronic Intifada demanded the EU remove the video, and indeed within 24 hours the film was removed. The EU’s stated reason – “We want no doubts that anything we do promotes the values the EU stands for.”

It thus appears that the EU is legitimately concerned when its public funds are distributed to individuals that contradict its values (or its image), so much so that it immediately acted on the demand made by the people who run a hate-filled website.

One might therefore imagine that if the EU was told that it was funding NGOs that contradict its values – such as groups that promote antisemitism – that they would immediately investigate and cease the funding.

To be sure, this phenomenon occurs. But the EU’s response has been quite different.

Funding Illegal settlements, EU-style - by Nadav Shragai

While the European Union blames Israel for taking unilateral steps across Judea and Samaria, it is actively participating in illegal Palestinian constriction between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea • The goal is clear: to undercut Israel's interests in Area C.

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
22 January '16..

There is something deceitfully pastoral about the Judea and Samaria hills, a place that has become the bone of contention between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel has been waging containment efforts against the Palestinians in the area for years. The Palestinians seek to create territorial continuity between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank, saying it is crucial for their future state, while Israel seeks to maintain urban and security continuity for east to west, from Jerusalem to Maaleh Adumim, to the Dead Sea.

The Israel Defense Forces define the area in question "a pivotal part of the strategic depth Israel needs" as part of its definition of "defensible borders." This strategic outline aims to allow Israel to defend its capital, as well as "create a security belt in case of any conflict on the eastern front."

Illegal Palestinian construction has been prevalent in this area for years. Over the past 20 years, Palestinian villages and towns have slowly closed the corridor between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim, where a major highway runs, crawling up as near as one mile from it.

The European Union funnels millions of dollars into the area, essentially funding hundreds of Palestinian housing units built in defiance of Israeli sovereignty over Area C, which under the 1993 Oslo Accords was left under full Israeli civil and security control.

It seems consumer boycotts no longer suffice the EU, which has now become an active player on the ground. Brussels and Washington's fingerprints are all over the boisterous international opposition to Israel's plan to turn the eastern slopes of Mount Scopus into a national park -- a plan meant to prevent Palestinian construction near the eastern gateway to Jerusalem -- as well as over the moratorium placed on Israeli construction in the E1 area, which stretches across 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim.

But while Israel has heeded the U.S. and EU demands to freeze construction across Judea and Samaria, thus refraining from creating continuity between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim, it is the Palestinians, with the active assistance of the EU, that are reshaping the area via illegal construction, which is slowly creating territorial continuity between Ramallah and Hebron.

Palestinian construction along the Jerusalem-Maaleh Adumim-Jericho section of Highway 1 has tripled over the past few years. Civil Administration data, recently presented to the Knesset's Subcommittee on Judea and Samaria, suggests that 6,500 Palestinians currently live in some 1,220 illegally-built homes in the area, and that this number grows weekly.

The Palestinian Authority, assisted by EU funding, is racing to populate the area and set facts on the ground in a way that would thwart Israel's plan to join Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim.

Avivit Bar-Ilan, head of the Foreign Ministry's European Organizations Department, met recently with representatives of the EU and demanded they cease funding illegal Palestinian construction in the area. In her briefing before the Subcommittee on Judea and Samaria, Bar-Ilan said she was informed that not only do the Europeans plan to continue funding Palestinian construction, the EU is currently preparing to take legal action against Israel, seeking restitution for losses incurred over Israel's decision to razed illegal structures built with European funds.

The X-files

Much like Brussels' boycott policy, the EU's "declaration of war" on Israeli sovereignty in Area C is nothing new, but it now carries a new dimension, which entails preventing Israel from taking significant action against illegal Palestinian construction in the E1 area.

The Regavim group, a nongovernmental organization that describes its mission as seeking to "ensure responsible, legal, accountable and environmentally friendly use of Israel's national lands," believes the Palestinian have developed a system: First, they pursue illegal construction; once the Civil Administration issues a demolition order, the Palestinians file a High Court petition against it; the court then issues a temporary injunction and sets a hearing date; the State Attorney's Office files multiple continuance motions to delay the state's rebuttal; the case gathers dust on the High Court's shelves and, after due notice, it is closed due to its inactivity.

The result is always the same: The petition is dismissed, the injunction remains in effect, and the illegal structure is "insured" against demolition.

Question. Why do Palestinian refugees get so much more attention than others?

...Let us not say that the lie is triumphing in Berkeley and other American campuses. The lie is triumphing here. The Nakba film festival isn't a victory for free speech. it's a victory for lying propaganda. It's a victory for the Palestinian peace refusal camp. It's a defeat for peace and common sense.

Ben-Dror Yemini..
Israel Opinion/Ynet..
04 December '15..

November 30, which was this week, was declared the day of remembrance for the banishment and expulsion of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. The Jewish Nakba. Aside from a conference at Bar-Ilan University, the subject echoed very faintly through Israel. Part of our elite is busy with another Nakba, which they celebrate again and again: the Palestinian one. They even organized another festival of Nakba films, produced by organizations or people who nurture the fantasy that is the right of return.

When someone attempts to wonder out loud about this injustice, the crocodile tears appear, along with complaints of silencing voices and other assorted goods. Silencing voices? The Palestinian Nakba receives the greatest marketing, in Israel and around the world. The first half of the 20th century saw between 52 and 60 million people go through the experience of forced relocation, most of them in the 1940s after World War Two, for the purpose of building nations. Because that was the norm in those days. It went well with the right of self-determination.

And of all of the dozens of cases of population switches, only the Arabs, who later became the Palestinians, receive this grand commemoration. There are thousands of publications in their name and in their honor. Entire shelves in every university. Departments and cathedrals in almost every university in the world, all to celebrate and glorify their suffering and victimhood. And Israeli film festivals as well.

Who has heard of the population exchange between Poland and Ukraine? How many conferences and film festivals are there commemorating that event, which included 1.4 million refugees, and 100,000 deaths, along with pogroms and slaughters? There's something small, reduced, for those in the know, mostly those who speak the local languages in Poland and Ukraine.

Harvard, Princeton, and Berkeley don't hold special ceremonies with giant budgets, or any film festivals. Neither do they hold these for the Jews of Arab countries, who went through pogroms, and were expelled. Because the propagandists of the progressive forces, in Israel too, dedicate their vigor to only one Nakba. And they dare to complain of others silencing their voices.

Europe's continued greasing of the wheels of hate

...Indeed, along with the Palestinian Authority, this terror industry is propelled by European elements, including those with affiliations to European Union governments. Despite their declared ambition of promoting peace and understanding, they are essentially providing this terror campaign with all the fuel it needs -- incitement, justification and glorification.

Gerald M. Steinberg..
Israel Hayom..
25 October '15..

In order to maintain a prolonged terror campaign, it is imperative to cultivate a deep-seated hatred. This hatred reverberates with university graduate students, law students, phone company employees with a steady and decent paycheck, and even the minds of 13-year-old children. More than anything, however, such a campaign requires funding. Indeed, along with the Palestinian Authority, this terror industry is propelled by European elements, including those with affiliations to European Union governments. Despite their declared ambition of promoting peace and understanding, they are essentially providing this terror campaign with all the fuel it needs -- incitement, justification and glorification.

Incitement

Imams in mosques and the leaders of Fatah and Hamas use the old libel of "Al-Aqsa is in danger" to incite the Palestinian masses. Other organizations, however, also contribute to this narrative, which has proved its effectiveness. For example, the Alternative Information Center, which is registered in Israel and is directly funded, among other sources, by the EU, published a call for "solidarity with the popular Palestinian resistance," while warning that "fanatical groups of settlers supported by the government ... are desecrating the [Temple Mount] compound ... and are calling to destroy the mosque." In addition to accusing Israel of colonialist policies of ethnic cleansing, it is also claimed that Israel and "Zionist militias" are responsible for the destruction of hundreds of churches and mosques since 1948.

Justification

In an emergency report published by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, a Gaza-based organization funded by European governments (including some from the EU), Israeli victims are uniformly described as "settlers," which is supposed provide political "justification" for the violence. Moreover, the report turns the attacker into the victim and blames the Israeli security forces for committing crimes. The photograph of 13-year-old terrorist Ahmad Saleh Manasra, showing him wounded and bleeding after being neutralized, became the poster child of Palestinian propaganda; similar to Muhammad al-Dura during the Second Intifada -- used to portray Israel as a child killer. While completely ignoring video footage documenting his terrorist attack and eyewitness testimonies, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights writes in its report that Ahmad was on his way to buy a dove when he was attacked. And if that claim is not enough to render the organization's professionalism and objectives a complete and utter joke -- there are no dove stores in Pisgat Ze'ev either.

France’s war against the Jews by Caroline Glick

...Contrary to what the French government would have us believe, France’s Temple Mount gambit is not an effort to quell the violence. French protestations of concern over the loss of life in the current tempest of Palestinian terrorism ring hollow. France doesn’t really oppose Palestinian terrorism. To the contrary, it facilitates it.

Caroline Glick..
Our World/JPost..
21 October '15..

France's plan to use its position at the UN Security Council to bring about the deployment of international monitors to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has been condemned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers as biased, unhelpful and detached from reality.

Certainly it is all those things. But France’s decision to use its diplomatic position to advance a plan which if implemented would end Israeli sovereignty over Judaism’s holiest site is first and foremost a French act of aggression against the Jewish state.

Contrary to what the French government would have us believe, France’s Temple Mount gambit is not an effort to quell the violence. French protestations of concern over the loss of life in the current tempest of Palestinian terrorism ring hollow.

France doesn’t really oppose Palestinian terrorism.

To the contrary, it facilitates it.

Every year, the French government pays millions of euros, dollars and shekels to Palestinian NGOs whose stated goal is to destroy Israel. Through its NGO agents, France finances the radicalization of Palestinian society. This French-financed radicalization makes Palestinian terrorism inevitable.

Much of the current rhetoric used by the Palestinians to reject Israel’s legitimacy and justify violence against Jews is found in strategic documents that France paid Palestinian NGOs to write.

According to NGO Monitor, between 2010 and 2013, France gave $6.5 million to a consortium of Palestinian NGOs called the NGO Development Center. It paid for the NDC to put together a strategic plan to advance its members’ goals. That French-initiated and financed document includes a list of activities not aimed at promoting peace, enhancing the daily lives of Palestinians, or expanding economic growth.

Rather, the French-financed strategic planning document provides a list of activities that the NGOs will undertake to delegitimize and criminalize Israel and ensure that Palestinians hate the Jewish state and view it as the cause of all their suffering.

Question. Can Europe’s Leaders Halt the Obsession With Attacking Israel?

...In this fictional world, Israel is all-powerful, and Palestinians are portrayed as victims incapable of taking responsibility. He patronizingly chides them for internal disputes and lack of unity, noting that they “would be well advised to restore their national and democratic project through holding elections.” But Gatt-Rutter skirts the abject failure of the EU’s efforts to promote democratic institution building in the West Bank, or the fact that PA President Mahmoud Abbas is in the tenth year of the four year term to which he was elected in 2005.

Dr. Gerald Steinberg..
The Algemeiner..
06 September '15..

Much of the Middle East is burning, but official Europe remains fixated on Israel. In Brussels, Stockholm, the Hague, Copenhagen, and London, the mythologies of the 1970s remain unchallenged, perhaps because dealing with the real threats to Europe from the chaotic Middle East reality – ISIS, Syria, desperate refugees, Iran, etc. – is overwhelming. So instead of focusing on critical issues, European Union officials are preparing to escalate their war on Israel through laws requiring the labeling of products produced in the non-existent “Palestinian Occupied Territories.”

This obsession is advanced by the activities of senior European officials, such as John Gatt-Rutter, who is finishing a four year term as the European Union’s Ambassador to the West Bank, Gaza, and UNRWA (the UN refugee agency that has perpetuated the Mideast conflict and anti-Israel hatred for more than 65 years). A veteran Arabist from Malta, Gatt-Rutter had previously headed the EU’s Mashraq/Maghreb (MaMa) policy group, and advised ex-EU foreign policy head Javier Solana on the Middle East Peace Process.

During his tenure, Gatt-Rutter reinforced the prevailing European mythologies while funds for anti-peace and anti-Israel NGOs continued to flow. His lengthy article published in the Palestine-Israel Journal (2015), optimistically entitled “The European Union’s Role in Facilitating a Resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” is a reflection of his policies, beliefs, and actions over the past four years.

This article, like his public statements and recent media interviews, repeats many standard catch-phrases – the obstacles to peace are again blamed on “the Israeli occupation” and “illegal settlements.” Not surprisingly, he fails to devote a single word to the chaos and violence throughout the Middle East – as if the brutality of ISIS, the Syrian civil war, Iran, and Hezbollah do not exist. His artificial map is restricted to the small area between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.

In this fictional world, Israel is all-powerful, and Palestinians are portrayed as victims incapable of taking responsibility. He patronizingly chides them for internal disputes and lack of unity, noting that they “would be well advised to restore their national and democratic project through holding elections.” But Gatt-Rutter skirts the abject failure of the EU’s efforts to promote democratic institution building in the West Bank, or the fact that PA President Mahmoud Abbas is in the tenth year of the four year term to which he was elected in 2005.

Actually, funding can be easily found for artists who want to inflict damage on the state

...Having said that, I would like to point out that "equal" state funding for everyone leads to inequality. On the one hand, as Garbuz said -- artists who want to inflict damage on the state can easily find funding from "other countries" (I am not saying the B'Tselem film inflicts damage on the state, as I have yet to watch it). On the other hand, artists who want to create an apolitical film will not be able to make inroads on the world stage, even if their work does not praise the "occupation" or, God forbid, the State of Israel (as Roy Zafrani knows all too well).

Prof. Asher Maoz..
Israel Hayom..
27 August '15..

The B'Tselem human rights organization will host a special event at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque on Thursday, titled "Gaza: An Inside Look." According to organizers, the event will include "footage documenting fierce fighting, as seen through the eyes Gazans." B'Tselem's Facebook page notes that the footage is based on "video journals that were created by young men and women after Operation Cast Lead [in 2008-2009] and curated by B'Tselem."

Right-wing activists have appealed to the Culture and Sports Ministry to have the event canceled or moved to a venue that is not publicly funded. Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev will obviously not be able to grant their request, but Cinematheque Director Alon Garbuz wasted no time criticizing her. "We will manage just fine even without the money," he said. "As I always say, 'If the state doesn't want to give us money, there are other countries that would.'"

Garbuz knows what he is talking about when he speaks of "other countries." The foreign funding he is referring to is very much on display at B'Tselem. To determine the scope of this funding, all you have to do is contact the organization's top officials.

Roy Zafrani is a veteran filmmaker. He directed the film "The Other Dreamers," which chronicles the lives of disabled children in Israel. It has won accolades from viewers, who said it was both touching and subtle. When Zafrani sought to have this film compete at the Human Rights Human Wrongs Film Festival in Oslo, organizers rejected his request.

"I'm sorry but we can't show this film. We support the academic and cultural boycott of Israel so unless the films are about the illegal occupation, or deals [sic] with the occupation or the blockade of Gaza, or otherwise about the discrimination of Palestinians, we can't show them," Ketil Magnussen, who is the founder of the festival’s parent organization, wrote him. "I'm sorry. Please let me know if you have documentary films that are dealing directly with the occupation, the you would want us to consider," Magnussen added.

Rest, recreation and the EU’s tax-funded hypocrisy

...for all their affiliation with “Palestine”, for all the hard work they invest in maintaining the hard-line extremism that is synonymous with the Palestinian Authority and its coalition partners Hamas, for all their assistance to the EU-sponsored illegal occupation of Jewish lands and the UN-financed indoctrination that passes for education, when the time comes for a little rest and recreation, where do these Western champions of “Palestine” choose to spend their tax-free euros? Not in Gaza City, not in Ramallah, not in Tulkarem.

Ilya Meyer..
Times of Israel..
23 August '15..

There is something particularly distasteful about the public anti-Israel stance of the massive, publicly funded organisation that is the EU.

Distasteful?

Yes, because the extremely highly paid EU staffers working in “Palestine”, who like their UN counterparts are paid from public coffers (read: your income tax and mine) are actually paid to undermine the State of Israel.

They do this through underhand, shady collaboration with some of the most extremist terror financiers, indoctrinators, supporters and practitioners known to the Western world.

They engage in this subversion from their bases in what some EU member states refer to as “Palestine”. That would be the country with at least three heads of state (in Jordan, in Gaza and in the Jewish provinces of Judea and Samaria that they want for their own state but are too pig-headed to negotiate over in good faith). Three heads of state who despise each other only marginally more than they hate the Jewish State of Israel.

But you know what?

Even that isn’t the main problem. Because it isn’t illegal to be stupid, it isn’t a criminal act to shut one’s ears to facts and figures, it isn’t illicit to close one’s eyes to acts of terrorism while vilifying measures designed to prevent those acts of terrorism.

Morally repugnant, yes. A sign of ethical stagnation, definitely. Symptomatic of an absurd inability to live up to even the most basic concepts of principled behaviour, sure.

But not illegal.

What can be made illegal, however, is the way these highly paid EU and UN staffers spend their money. That would be the money they earn — tax-free — while working in “Palestine” to subvert the democracy that is Israel. The one and only democracy in the entire Middle East.

Can You Imagine? The EU Causes Peace Process And Quartet Meltdown

...It is hard to conceive any action more likely to undermine trust or prejudge final status issues than the Quartet’s failure to condemn the EU’s own aberrant behaviour and call for an immediate halt to its illegal activities in the West Bank.

David Singer..
Jwire.com..
17 February '15..

Revelations that the European Union (EU) has been acting illegally in funding and facilitating the construction of more than 400 unauthorised buildings in areas in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) under exclusive Israeli control – signals the end of:

- negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation under the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2003 Bush Roadmap and
- the role of the Quartet – America, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union – as mediator in those negotiations

The Daily Mail – in exposing the EU’s bizarre behaviour – reported on 6 February that:

“Official EU documentation reveals that the building project is intended to ‘pave the way for development and more authority of the PA over Area C (the Israeli area)’, which some experts say is an attempt to unilaterally affect facts on the ground. Locally, the villages are known as the ‘EU Settlements’, and can be found in 17 locations around the West Bank. They proudly fly the EU flag, and display hundreds of EU stickers and signs. Some also bear the logos of Oxfam and other NGOs, which have assisted in the projects.”

The EU through its spokesman- Shadi Othman – attempted to justify such conduct by reiterating the EU’s unilateral opinion as to the final outcome of the currently stalled negotiations:

”We support the Palestinian presence in Area C. Palestinian presence should not be limited Areas A and B. Area C is part of the occupied Palestinian territory which eventually will be Palestinian land.”

Why Israel’s approval was not first sought before the EU surreptitiously undertook such activity – remains unexplained.

The Palestinians' European Union-Funded Campaign Against Israel

...The EU leaders who met with Abbas last week are either unaware of the anti-Israel incitement by his Fatah faction or simply prefer to bury their heads in the sand. In both cases, the EU is not helping advance the cause of peace in the Middle East. On the contrary, the EU continues to turn a blind eye to this anti-Israel campaign, and is generously funding it through dozens of NGOs in the Palestinian territories.

EU leaders, such as European Commission
Jean-Claude Juncker (right), who met with
Mahmoud Abbas (left) last week, are either
unaware of anti-Israel incitement by his Fatah
faction or simply prefer to bury their heads
in the sand. (Image source: RT video screenshot)

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
16 February '15..

Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction in the West Bank is trying to divert attention from its problems at home by further inciting Palestinians and the international community against Israel.

In recent weeks, Fatah gunmen and Palestinian Authority [PA] policemen have been clashing almost on a daily basis in the Balata and Jenin refugee camps in the northern West Bank. Meanwhile, Fatah leaders have been busy badmouthing each other -- a sign of deepening divisions among the faction's top brass.

This incitement, which includes reviving the old disproven claim that Israel was behind the 2004 death of Yasser Arafat and calls for boycotting Israeli companies, is playing into the hands of Hamas and other Palestinians who are opposed to any peace process with Israelis.

During his recent visit to Sweden, Abbas announced that he would work to revive the peace talks with Israel. But while Abbas was talking in Stockholm about his intention to resume peace talks, leaders of his Fatah faction in the West Bank were sending a completely different message to Palestinians.

Unlike Abbas, these leaders were not talking about any peace process with Israel. Instead, they were making statements that would only radicalize Palestinians and give them reason to hate Israel even more.

Not surprisingly, the voices of the Fatah leaders, closely associated with the Palestinian Authority president, did not reach the government officials in Sweden, who went out of their way to roll out the red carpet for Abbas.

So while Abbas was inaugurating the Palestinian Embassy in central Stockholm, the first-ever Palestinian embassy in Western Europe, his officials held a press conference in Ramallah to announce a boycott of Israeli companies.

EU ‘is breaking international law’ by funding illegal West Bank building projects

Maja Kocijancic, a Brussels-based EU spokesperson, denied that this was happening. ‘The EU's funding will provide training and expertise, to help the relevant Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministries to plan and build new infrastructure and enable people to reclaim and rebuild their land there,’ she said. ‘To date, no construction has started yet under these programmes. The EU is not funding illegal projects.'When shown sequences of photographs showing construction taking place, she declined to comment. She also did not comment on an EU-Oxfam sign stating that the 'main activities' of construction work are 'rehabilitation and reclamation' of land.

A man in EU uniform threatens
Israeli soldiers and bystanders with
a rock on the West Bank in 2012

Jake Wallis Simons..
dailymail.co.uk..
05 February '15..

The EU is acting illegally by funding unauthorised Palestinian building in areas placed under Israeli control by international law, say an NGO, international lawyers and MEPs.

More than 400 EU-funded Palestinian homes have been erected in Area C of the West Bank, which was placed under Israeli jurisdiction during the Oslo Accords – a part of international law to which the EU is a signatory.

The Palestinian buildings, which have no permits, come at a cost of tens of millions of Euros in public money, a proportion of which comes from the British taxpayer.

This has raised concerns that the EU is using valuable resources to take sides in a foreign territorial dispute.
Official EU documentation reveals that the building project is intended to ‘pave the way for development and more authority of the PA over Area C (the Israeli area)’, which some experts say is an attempt to unilaterally affect facts on the ground.

Locally, the villages are known as the ‘EU Settlements’, and can be found in 17 locations around the West
Bank. They proudly fly the EU flag, and display hundreds of EU stickers and signs. Some also bear the logos of Oxfam and other NGOs, which have assisted in the projects.

Questions have also been asked about the conduct of EU workers in the region, after a picture emerged of a man in EU uniform threatening soldiers and bystanders with a rock outside a settlement in 2012. An EU spokesperson declined to comment on the picture.

(Continue)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 
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Europe’s Unsurprising Role in the “Jewish State” Law

...For a number of years, anti-Zionist political groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have sought to reverse the definition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and replace it by a state “of all of its citizens”. Many of these NGOs receive major foreign government funding, both directly and through church aid agencies, to promote this objective under the facade of human rights and democracy. They are also very active in demonization campaigns around the world,which single-out Israel for boycotts and other political attacks.

Gerald M. Steinberg..
Times of Israel..
30 November '14..

In the debate on the proposed “Jewish state law”, much of the criticism erases the context that brought this issue to the political center at this time. Claims of “racism” and “discrimination” that have echoed through the media and in the Knesset reduce an important and complex issue to simplistic and misleading slogans.

This initiative cannot be understood without considering the ongoing campaigns to erode and eventually erase the essential Jewish framework of Zionism. For a number of years, anti-Zionist political groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have sought to reverse the definition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and replace it by a state “of all of its citizens”. Many of these NGOs receive major foreign government funding, both directly and through church aid agencies, to promote this objective under the facade of human rights and democracy. They are also very active in demonization campaigns around the world,which single-out Israel for boycotts and other political attacks.

For example, an Israel-based group known as Zochrot (Remembrance), which accuses Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” among other libels, held a film festival on the “Nakba and Return” at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque on November 27-29. Such events and the advertising campaigns that surround them promote the Palestinian myth of a “right of return”, which, if it were implemented, would end Israel’s existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Zochrot’s activities demonizing the Jewish state are funded by organizations (including many “humanitarian” church groups) who in turn receive money from the governments of the UK, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, France, and Switzerland.

Straight talk, crooked dealings and the role of foreign aid in financing Palestinian Arab terror

...We're not optimistic that a turning point has been reached. Europe and to a great extent the US as well are deeply invested in the Palestinian Authority, and in the moralistic acrobatics that got them to become its financiers. Climbing down from the tree, if it ever happens, would mean many politicians and the bureaucrats who serve them having to own up to being duped again and again, year after year, by the Arafat regime and then the Abbas clique that took over (or in some cases, to having been co-conspirators, and one prominent British figure knows we mean him).

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
10 April '14..

A document produced by the Israel Government Prime Minister's Office in January and publicized just today [according to the Jerusalem Post] reiterates the extent to which the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas finances terrorism, making monkeys out of the foreign governments whose aid money makes this possible. Some key points:

In 2012, the PA's overall budget was $3.1 Billion of which $786 Million came from foreign aid.

The impoverished (by its own description) PA channeled no less than $153.5 Million to terrorists imprisoned in Israel, to their families, and to the families of deceased terrorists including human bombs during that year.

That's 16% of the foreign aid received by the PA in that period.

It's also 5% of the PA's annual total budget.

We have written often here about the appalling three-way deal Israel did with the US and the Palestinian Arabs last year as the price for the Abbas regime agreeing in principle to sit down at a negotiating table and talk "peace". None of that eventuated, but what did was that 78 convicted terrorists were released by Israel (of a proposed 104). Today, living in freedom, they get monthly payments from the PA "of up to $3,500, and grants of up to $25,000."

In fact, some get much more. The obscenely flattering Jody Rudoren profile of a released Palestinian Arab killer in the New York Times [“Remaking a Life, After Years in an Israeli Prison” front page, March 30, 2014] demonstrated this last week, and quotes numbers. They're large: the Wall Street Journal says today the murderers get paid PA salaries that are "up to five times higher than the average salary in the West Bank."

The Israeli document, stating the obvious, points out that "the Palestinian Authority is highly dependent on foreign aid. This money, which supports the PA budget, is fungible to meet payments for imprisoned and released terrorists... Publicly rewarding convicted murderers gives an official stamp of approval to terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. It is a highly persuasive form of incitement to violence and terrorism."

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Check-it out! 
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EU, Israel Reach "Compromise" - A de facto EU boycott of Israeli institutions

...The Israeli government has hailed the November 26 diplomatic breakthrough—in which both sides ostensibly agree to disagree—as a victory for Israel and the Israeli technology sector. But the true winner appears to be the EU, which has not budged at all from its insistence on using the agreement to impose its pro-Palestinian polices on Israel.

Soeren Kern..
Gatestone Institute..
27 November '13..

Israel and the European Union have reached a tentative agreement on a compromise formula that will make it possible for Israel to participate in a prestigious and financially lucrative European scientific research program.

The compromise paves the way for Israel to participate in Horizon 2020, the EU's flagship research and development program—despite Israeli objections to a contentious new policy that prohibits the EU from funding Israeli institutions that operate anywhere beyond the Green Line, including eastern Jerusalem.

The Israeli government has hailed the November 26 diplomatic breakthrough—in which both sides ostensibly agree to disagree—as a victory for Israel and the Israeli technology sector.

But the true winner appears to be the EU, which has not budged at all from its insistence on using the agreement to impose its pro-Palestinian polices on Israel.

Israel and the EU both stand to benefit from Israel's involvement in the €70 billion ($95 billion) program, which begins on January 1, 2014 and will run for a period of seven years.

Israel—the only non-EU country that has been invited to join Horizon 2020—is expected to invest €600 million in the program and receive €900 million in inbound research grants and other investments. For its part, the EU will benefit from Israeli research and technology, which is widely believed to surpass the capabilities of many EU member states.

But Israeli participation in Horizon 2020 became jeopardized after the EU politicized the project by linking it to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The new EU directive—the long title of which is "Guidelines on the Eligibility of Israeli Entities and their Activities in the Territories Occupied by Israel since June 1967 for Grants, Prizes and Financial Instruments funded by the EU from 2014 Onwards"—forbids EU organizations and institutions from funding or cooperating with any Israeli entities based in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem or the Golan Heights.

Bless Their Precious Souls, Euros Don’t Care PA Steals Their Money

...The primary reason is the bigotry of low expectations. Like many of those who form the Palestinians’ foreign cheerleaders, the Europeans tend to act as if the PA and its people are not capable of responsible behavior. They believe, perhaps not entirely wrongly, that the only way to persuade the Palestinian people to keep Abbas and the corrupt Fatah in power rather than choosing the Islamists of Hamas is to bribe them. They seem to think them incapable of choosing democracy and good government over violence and terrorism.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
18 October '13..

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas was in Berlin this week and received the usual reception that he gets in European capitals. German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, condemned Israeli settlement building and then vowed to continue funneling cash to the PA. The latter point is especially crucial because the PA dependent on European aid. But nowhere in Merkel’s remarks did the question of what exactly the PA does with all the funds poured into its coffers by Germany and the rest of the EU community.

Had she done so, she could have referred to an article in Britain’s Sunday Times that said the European Court of Auditors, the official European Union body monitoring the group’s funds, found that the PA has misspent nearly $3 billion in EU donations during the period covering 2008 to 2012. The audit body said the money was not being used for the purpose for which it was intended and that there were “significant shortcomings” in the PA’s accounts of what it did with the money. In other words, they are now well aware that Abbas and his cronies are robbing them blind just as his predecessor Yasir Arafat did when he ran things in Ramallah.

The question is, why does a nation like Germany, that was rightly prepared to pull the plug on a debt-ridden fellow EU member state like Greece unless they got their fiscal house in order, not care that the Palestinians are stealing their money?

Merkel, who in many ways functions as the financier of the continent, is not as hostile to Israel as many of her European colleagues. But like everyone else in the EU, she thinks nothing of pouring her people’s money down the rat hole of the PA. The reasons for this are not hard to figure out.

Your kidding? Massive scandal in Palestinian Arab financial affairs? No!

...If there is one aspect of this saga of corruption and dishonesty that is truly beyond our comprehension it's this: how can the members of the news media who cover the EU and the Middle East conflict have allowed this decade-plus financial scandal (one that everyone knows about and that few will discuss in public) to get so little media coverage?

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
13 October '13..

Seven years ago, we wrote here:

Don't be offended. But if you're a European who cares about what's being done with the taxes you pay to your government, the Palestinians are playing you for a fool. Not just you alone, but also your government, your politicians and your public-sector watchdogs.

Seven years: so much misery, so little progress.

For those wondering who OLAF is and what it did and did not do to facilitate the unjust enrichment of a large cohort of corrupt Palestinian Arab insiders, and/or who know little (or maybe nothing) about the connection between European funding of Palestinian Arab terrorism and the politician who is today the chairman of the BBC Trust, please read what we wrote back then. (And for a more recent update: "9-Sep-13: Snouts and troughs")

Today (literally) it became very relevant all over again. Here is the report that sparked a minor burst of interest in how the Palestinian Arabs have played, and continue to this very minute to play, an elaborate shell game funded by European taxpayers and benefiting some of the most hideous people a person would ever want to meet.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Check-it out! 
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The EU direct funding of settlements in occupied territory

The EU knowingly and purposefully provides substantial direct financial assistance to settlements in occupied territory – in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, that is.

Eugene Kontorovich..
Op-Ed Contributor/JPost..
28 September '13..

A delegation of European Union officials arrived in Israel weeks ago to discuss the European Commission’s proposed regulations for discretionary funding to Israeli entities.

Under guidelines prepared earlier this summer, euros would not be allowed to go to Israeli entities located cross the Green Line – or to those that have any operations there. All Israeli entities applying for funding would have to submit a declaration that they do not have such operations.

Europe claims that such a move – unparalleled in its dealings with any other country – is mandated by international law. The EU does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the territories, and thus has an obligation to keep its money from going there. Those who celebrated the move said that Israel is finally paying the international price for its occupation.

Yet it turns out that despite the guidelines, the EU still knowingly and purposefully provides substantial direct financial assistance to settlements in occupied territory – in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, that is. So the EU funds the occupation of an EU member state. Turkey’s invasion and occupation of Cyprus in 1974 was condemned the UN Security Council, and the EU’s official policy is that the Turkish occupation is illegitimate, and Turkey must completely withdraw. The EU does not recognize the Turkish government in Northern Cyprus.

Nonetheless, the EU maintains an entire separate program to direct funds to Northern Cyprus.

They even put out a nice, colorful brochure last year.