T. Belman. For those unfamiliar with +972, it is virulenlty anti-Israel
Whether European states follow through on their threats and warnings over the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar will determine a great deal about the EU’s relevance and its ability to influence Israeli policy vis-a-vis the Palestinians.
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, +972
Palestinian, foreign, and Israeli activists try to block an Israeli bulldozer preparing for the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar, July 4, 2018. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
European powers are going to have to make a crucial choice in the coming week. Two months after five EU states reportedly warned Israel that the demolition and forced displacement of Khan al-Ahmar would trigger a reaction from its allies, the Israeli Supreme Court on Wednesday gave its final stamp of approval for the demolition to go ahead.
Along with the southern West Bank hamlet of Susya, the EU has touted Khan al-Ahmar as one of a few, seemingly arbitrary red lines in Israel’s decades-long policy of demolishing Palestinian homes and expanding its settlement enterprise in the occupied territory (for an explanation why, read Edo Konrad’s interview with Jerusalem expert Daniel Seidemann). Diplomats arrive in convoys whenever the small, dilapidated villages in ‘Area C’ are on the verge of being destroyed. Statements of condemnation, and occasional warnings, are fired into the ether.
Up until now, that approach has partially worked. But things have changed in the past two years, the biggest difference being that the current White House – whose Middle East policy is being led by unabashedly right-wing and pro-settler figures like Jared Kushner and David Friedman – is no longer concerned with what Israel does to the Palestinians. And if it does care, it is unwilling to even mutter an indication of disapproval.
This means that the European powers, to put it bluntly, will have to decide whether to put up or shut up about their commitments to Khan al-Ahmar. Even if they were to act, they are unlikely to do so as a united bloc due to Israel’s budding friendships with far-right EU governments, who hold effective veto power in the EU’s consensus-based system of foreign policy. Governments would therefore have to step in individually.
Considering how few issues the international community is willing to take a stand on vis-à-vis Israel, and considering that EU leaders took it upon themselves to draw a semi-coherent red line with Khan al-Ahmar, the responses of Germany, France, the UK, Spain, and Italy will be crucial in determining the fate of international engagement on the Palestinian issue.
With the United States no longer interested in applying even nominal pressure on Israel, the European powers, who hold significant economic leverage, will need to prove whether their warnings were actually serious threats or empty words. If they do not react with some sort of sanctions or punitive measures, they will have lost whatever is left of their deterrence in halting the Israeli government’s relentless campaign to make the (EU-backed) two-state solution an obsolete idea.
But such punishments are unlikely to be imposed. Diplomatic threats are hardly ever made with the intention of following through; that is why the consequences are never detailed or hinted at. Israel has long believed that to be the case, and now it gets to test the boundaries of its impunity even further — something it has been doing more and more daringly in recent years.
The result is that the current Israeli government, and the governments that follow, will be emboldened to become even more belligerent in rewriting the rules that govern its behavior: in this case, the rules regulating how quickly it can advance its piecemeal, quiet annexation of Palestine in the coming years.
+972 is funded by the New Israel Fund and others.
This Chutzapadik assorted bunch of well proven Jew Haters has been encouraging, perhaps instructing, Arabs to infiltrate into Area C, which is supposedly, totally Israel controlled by agreements, including the infamous Oslo accords to which Israel has clung to, even against all the evidence that it should have been trashed already within a year after enactment.
The Mamzerim erect ramshackle hobo camps added to by EU supplied, well fitted out Pre-fab homes.
I have asked MANY times on this site……”How does the EU manage to get these large items through Israel Customs, and past Border Guards, without detection. My conclusion has to be that Israel sees, but turns it’s usual “blind eye”.
It would be impossible otherwise. I have never received any answer…….
As of yet ISRAEL has yet to complete the task. The left wing court fighting for its life gave the go go go. Is nutunyahoo giving the arabs another opening to face the court or waiting for some word from the i c c?
Come Tuesday we go into about 2 weeks of holidays, will this be a set up to allow e u to organize a defiance defence against ISRAEL?
It’s obvious from this article that the writer is anti-Israel and probably antisemitic as well. Just further proof of what Israel has to contend with.