EU Resolution on Occupied Palestinian Territories: a Boycott towards Israel?

• 01.21.2016, 19:18
•  Europe,  Near East,  World

The European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council issued a resolution urging a multilateral solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The resolution criticizes Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories, recalling that settlements are illegal under international law.

Despite Israeli efforts to persuade some EU members to block it, the resolution was agreed by the EU foreign affairs council on Monday. It should be noted that Israel’s only hope was Greece, one of five countries that was expected to block acceptance of the resolution, but the country backed down following a weekend of arguments and pressure from Palestinian officials and other European diplomats, the Guardian reports.

However, it should be noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts have not passed in vain entirely, as a sentence requiring EU member states to draw a distinction between Israel-proper and territories over the 1949 Armistice lines was dropped from the final version of the resolution, Israelnationalnews.com reports.  

Based on the "spirit" of the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference, the European ministers called for "the establishment of an International Support Group".

Considering the Israeli settlements illegal under international law and calling them an obstacle to peace and a threat to two-state solution, the EU urges Israel "to end all settlement activity and to dismantle the outposts erected since March 2001, in line with prior obligations’’, Petra.gov reports.

 "The EU expresses its commitment to ensure that - in line with international law - all agreements between the State of Israel and the EU must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to territories occupied by Israel in 1967."

But according to the statement this does not mean ''a boycott of Israel which the EU strongly opposes''.

It should be noted that "occupied Palestinian territories" refer to the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip which are occupied by Israel.

Israel occupied these territories in the Six-Day War of 1967 and has maintained control on them since then, which complicated the situation and deepened the political crisis between the two sides. Moreover, Israel's settlement-building, and its construction of a massive border-wall has made resolution of the conflict even more difficult.

The current purpose of Israel in the Gaza Strip is to protect the status quo. In 2005 Israel unilaterally disengaged from the Gaza strip.But the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are still considered to be occupied by Israel according to the international community. 

Despite these facts, the EU resolution has raised anger among Israeli politicians. In this regard Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely criticized the resolution announcing that "the Europeans continue to act unilaterally with regards to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict".

 At the same time Foreign Ministry of the country said the approach "prevents the EU from being a fair player in the settlement of the conflict'', Israelnationalnews.com reports.  

According to their announcement "the EU continues to act with a double standard when it comes to Israel, while ignoring the responsibility of the Palestinians for the political deadlock and for the incitement that feeds the wave of Palestinian terrorism".