Europe

  • Print Friendly, PDF & Email
  • Send to Kindle

Report: EU Funding Palestinian Construction in Violation of Treaties

by TheTower.org Staff |

The European Union (EU) is funding illegal Palestinian construction in Area C, a territory that is under full Israeli jurisdiction according to the Oslo Accords, The Daily Mail reported Thursday.

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. …

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.

According to the Mail the funding “has raised concerns that the EU is using valuable resources” to favor one side in an international dispute. While one EU spokesperson denied that it was funding construction, another, Shadi Othman, defended the work.

“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.

Palestinians have a right to live there, build schools there, have economic development.”

But as Tom Wilson observed at Commentary:

The settlements in question have been built by the EU in Area C of the West Bank. Under the Oslo II agreement signed in 1995, clause 2 of article 27 gives Israel full and exclusive authority over all planning and construction within Area C of the West Bank. This is an agreement that not only the Palestinian Authority signed up to, but one that the European Union is a signatory of as well. As such, that treaty has the status of binding international law which the EU is obliged to uphold. Worse still, these illegal settlements are guarded by aggressive EU workers who have been caught threatening Israeli soldiers and onlookers with rocks.

The revelation of EU funding of illegal construction comes at a time that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has intensified his efforts to use international law to discredit Israel, in defiance of the Obama administration.

[Photo: Regavim Advocacy Project / YouTube ]

tt