Vanishing East Jerusalem: EU Must Use Association Council to Ensure Israel Respects International Law

 Click Here to Download the Report:
>> Click here to Download: Vanishing East Jerusalem: EU Must Use Association Council to Ensure Israel Respects International Law   (9 pages, 467 KB)

Conclusion:

The EU has publically rejected Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and considers the two-state solution as well as the creation of a viable and independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital as “a fundamental European interest” and a precondition for peace in the Middle East. The Union has repeatedly called on Israel to stop settlement activities, discriminatory treatment of Palestinians, house demolitions and evictions in Jerusalem, and to allow Palestinians access to holy sites, affirming that it would not recognise any changes to the pre-1967 borders.

In the meantime, Israel continues to entrench its de facto annexation of East Jerusalem and undermines any Palestinian presence in the city through a deliberate, aggressive and illegal policy of land annexation and population transfer. Israel’s prolonged violations of international law have changed the socio-demographic nature of city, redrawn its municipal boundaries and isolated East Jerusalem from the rest of the OPT. This practice not only seriously undermines the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, but precludes the outcome of any final status negotiations, threatening to make the two state-solution and a peaceful resolution to the conflict impossible.

While Israel’s policies directly undermine the EU’s positions and its objectives regarding the OPT, including East Jerusalem, and the Middle East as a whole, the EU has so far failed to use the significant leverage of its bilateral relations with Israel in order to pressure the latter to refrain from its illegal practices. Contrary to the EU’s intention to link the upgrading of its relations with Israel to human rights and international humanitarian law, and despite its decision not to proceed with the formal upgrading process, the EU continues, in practice, to strengthen its relations with Israel. The EU’s “business as usual” approach amounts to tacit acquiescence of Israel’s systematic violations of international law.

The EU’s current policy of “empty words” challenges the Union’s ability to positively impact the human rights situation in the OPT and to contribute to a “comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.” The upcoming EU-Israel Association Council provides an important opportunity to adopt a crucial new EU policy relating to the OPT, in particular on East Jerusalem, and to condition the upgrading of EU-Israel relations on international human rights and humanitarian law.

Click Here to Download the Report:
>> Click here to Download: Vanishing East Jerusalem: EU Must Use Association Council to Ensure Israel Respects International Law   (9 pages, 467 KB)

Source: Alternative information center, 24/2/2011