While the EU has repeatedly slammed settlement building by Israel in the West Bank as ‘illegal’, it has been funneling millions into the region to illegally build Palestinian settlements.
By Donna Rachel Edmunds, World Israel News
Israeli border police officers stand guard near the Yitzhar settlement, where illegal structures where demolished earlier in the morning in April 2020. (Flash90/Sraya Diamant)
European nations are actively encouraging and funding the building of illegal Palestinian settlements in Area C of the West Bank, even as Israel is being criticized for legal building, the director of a pro-Israel organization has said.The West Bank is the area west of the Jordan river which was captured from Jordan in the 1967 war by Israel. As it includes Palestinian towns, the region, known as Judea and Samaria to Jewish Israelis, was subsequently split into three sections by the Oslo Accords: Area A, administered by the Palestinian Authority, which Israeli citizens are barred from entering, Area B, which is shared territory, and Area C which under Israeli control.Israel has come under increasingly vocal criticism for the building of settlements in Area C, with critics accusing Israel of attempting to change the facts on the ground. However, the EU has simultaneously been actively encouraging the building of Palestinian settlements in the same region without planning permission from the Israeli authorities – making them illegal settlements.
“To date, EU member countries have transferred around 120 million Euros toward building in Area C,” Gilad Ach, director of the Ad Kan non-profit organization told Arutz Sheva. “From their perspective, the battle is already over in Areas A and B, and now they’ve moved on to take control over areas that were designated as Israeli-controlled in the Oslo Agreements. They don’t care about that – they’re going right ahead and actually building a Palestinian state right in the middle of Area C.”
EU plans to spend 3 billion Euros creating a de-facto Palestinian state by 2030
Last Thursday, the Palestinian news service WAFA reported in English that Germany had pledged 100 million Euros to the Palestinian Authority over the next two years for projects in Gaza, east Jerusalem, and Palestinian settlements in Area C.
According to Wafa, during a press conference, Prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh “expressed …his appreciation and thanks to the government and people of Germany for their generous and continuous support and continuing commitment to the rights of the Palestinian people to liberation, independence, and to establish their independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of return for refugees.”
Ach explained that the 100 million was merely an installment of a planned three billion Euro spending plan by 2030, designed to advance the creation of a Palestinian state, with different countries being allocated different areas in which to concentrate their funds.
France had been allotted the area between Efrat and Tekoa, he said, while Belgium had been given Gush Etzion. Included among the land parcels is east Jerusalem. Once handed their parcel, each country is expected to draw up a plan for development, and authorize a budget for construction.
Ach added that the EU nations are already sending over architects, construction experts and so on to facilitate the building without co-ordinating with the Israeli government, despite Israel being the ruling authority. “They don’t care about such niceties,” Ach said. “They do whatever they want, regardless.”
Such activities are not new. A 2015 report by Regavim found that the EU had already built more than 400 illegal structures in the West Bank, and had placed an EU flag atop them in the belief that Israel would not demolish the buildings and spark a PR crisis.
The villages, at some 17 locations across the West Bank, were referred to locally as ‘EU settlements”
Shadi Othman, a spokesman for the EU in the West Bank and Gaza, told the UK’s Daily Mail at the time: ‘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. This is part of the work done to build the future Palestinian state which will live side by side with Israel. It’s an international and EU interest to protect the viability of the two state solution.”
He added: “If some people are complaining about this, we should not forget the illegal Israeli settlements that are built on occupied Palestinian territory and are illegal under international law and constitute an obstacle to peace.”
The report by Regavim said that EU support for the PA had moved “passive diplomatic and financial assistance to a situation of active cooperation in illegal building which the Palestinian Authority has been advancing unilaterally since 2000, as part of its strategic plan to create a Palestinian state de facto, while avoiding the need for negotiations with Israel.”
Ach noted: “Plenty of money has already been transferred. What’s different in 2021 is that they made the decision to move from pilot plan to implementation, and then wait to see the Israeli response to actual construction. This is now happening before our very eyes.”
Last year, Israel indicated plans to annex parts of the West Bank where Jewish settlements were already established, making those towns fully sovereign. Residents of the established towns have raised concerns that their homes could be taken away in a future peace agreement.
European leaders reacted sharply. Germany’s Bundestag passed a motion declaring the annexation plan illegal with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas insisting “Peace cannot be achieved by unilateral steps.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian meanwhile said that annexation would have consequences. “Annexation of Palestinian territories, whatever the perimeters, would seriously throw into question the parameters to resolve the conflict,” Le Drian told a parliamentary hearing, according to Die Welt. “An annexation decision could not be left without consequences and we are examining different options at a national level and also in coordination with our main European partners.”
The UK’s Boris Johnson also chimed in, claiming “Annexation would represent a violation of international law, [and] would put in jeopardy the progress that Israel has made in improving relationships with the Arab and Muslim world.”
Trust me, Bear. You can not tell me anything I will not believe of the Poles. I have family too who paid a consequence of being citizens in that nation and I have read a great deal to balance their tales. The Poles had a bad time in WWII and their allies failed them miserably. But the role they played in the Holocaust was not a small one, but this too is not an isolated event to the Polish people and they do have a large group of Righteous Gentiles as Adam notes.
It doesn’t, however, change my opinion that this is nothing to do with Lapid’s actions…in my opinion. And it isn’t because Lapid is a Leftist, his being part of the Left is different from him being a anti-nationalist, which is why he rewrote the definition of antisemitism to hold a distinctly non-Jewish relevance and now he claims to champion antisemitism after declaring it a universal event. If antisemitism is just hatred, then go fight the Boko Haram as readily as the Poles. Olmert, that corrupt swine, held a Leftist govt, but never would he have moved to this sort of tragedy upon our people. The use of altering definitions is a very telling thing in and of itself, a very Alinsky thing to do.
So, as I see things, it isn’t Right-Left, as you often say, as it is much more basic and significant a demarcation. It is nationalist – anti-nationalist or nationalist-globalist, if you prefer, masquerading to champion a topic this villian defined as not existing, just a couple of months ago. Perhaps you disagree, but this is how I see this game being staged, in any case.
Poles have trouble with anyone who speaks the truth about their crimes be it Lapid or Bibi or anyone else.
In 2018 Polish government turned very angry with Israel. During the diplomatic flare-up when Bibi tried to smooth things over with the Poles and was accused of backtracking on his comments.
Lapid is like many of us Jews from Holocaust surviving families we simply will not appease nor bow quietly to those involved or covering up the Holocaust.
Lapid is the most patently transparent figure. His actions against the Poles is not based on ideals of quenching antisemitism. He doesn’t even know what the word means. Based on his definition, he could just as easily chose to fight the ‘antisemitics’ in Kabul who are chasing down the Americans stranded there. His efforts to delegitimize the fight against antisemitism should be seen as a central part of this fight against Poland and Hungary, because his anti-nationalist mindset places this fight against a neutered form of hatred that was aimed at the Jewish people in the lands of Poland during WWII and since, and before, as quite moot. His distortion of this term lays his view plain. Yet he will use this ruse as a basis to pursue his anti-nationalist aims by defanging Israel’s only champions in Europe, but these champions are also the only nationalists in Europe, something quite intolerable to the former TV host. In fact, all of Europe and all of the major world powers are antisemitic.
Yet Lapid will choose a fight with only Israel’s European champions in the name of antisemitism, a word he reworked to also undertake a anti-nationalist view. Should we envision Lapid atop a mighty steed chasing the antisemitism from the world stage? I think not. I don’t see him castigating the German govt for funding the NGO’s that enter Israel and cause so much trouble vis-a-vis the Pals and Area C, which seems a more pressing issue of antisemitism than Poland’s refusal to recognize their heinous antisemetic actions before during or since WWII. What about the French and their support of antisemtic attacks upon Jews in France while giving the Arab attackers a judicial pass? That’s right Lapid isn’t attacking them. What about the Leftists in the US attacking and molding the Jewish youth to a Leftist viewpoint? Silence there too. Then there is BLM. BLM you might recall is the antisemetic orgainization which carried out an actual pogrom in the streets of Los Angeles last year, and for which Lapid has had no condemnation. But then, BLM is the dog, leashed by the Democrats who share Lapid’s world view. I also did not hear Lapid’s calls against BLM’s antisemitic charter nor the Democratic Party to which this racist antisemitic organization acts as Democratic storm troopers. These very same Democrats, who stand as Lapid’ allies, also harbor some of the most outspokenly antisemitic caricatures in our world today. Yet, the white Knight has no thought of requiring their expulsion or discipline. I think none could argue with these observations.
While it may be popular in Israel to attack the Poles, should Lapid gain his way, the Europeans will have a cart blanche to move against Israel, and only Urban and his counterpart in Poland hold the Europeans from doing so today. Lapid knows this, but it works to his Leftist anti-nationalist agenda. Picking your battles in life always includes the contemplation of what should result if you should win the battles you have chosen. Which is why Lapid chases the European nationalists, even as they form Israel’s only support in the EU, while ignoring his very good allies in the Democrat Congress, or in Germany or the American college campuses… – just a few easy examples, but there are more.
Poles are very active in trying to silence historians who documented the Polish role in the extermination of three million Jews.
There were and are good and righteous Poles including those acknowledged at Yad Vashem for aiding Jews during World War II.
However, this attempted erasing of Polish crimes and antisemitism including current Polish government actions should not be accepted nor appeased.
@Adam, I remember debating this point about Polish collaborators with you in the past perhaps two years ago. I remember we disagree and I referenced several books on the subject by Polish Jews. We disagreed. Feel free to your views as always. I am clearly on the side of those he believe Poles collaborated with Nazis, plus committed their atrocities during the war and post war.
This includes when the Polish communist government confiscated properties from Jews.
@Bear. In his interview with an Israeli journalist which was the main sourceThe deputy prime minister did describe at some length the fact that Poland could not possibly pay all of the heirs of all of the Jews who were murdered in Poland or were forced to flee the country by the Nazis, or who chose to leave Poland, the “graveyard” of their relatives and friends, after the war. It is from this Polish official that I got this explanation of the motives behind the recent Polish “quitclaims” law.
He did give three other explanations, 1) the Poles did not ask the Nazis to invade and occupy their country. The Nazis killed as many as two million Polish gentiles as well as 3 million Polish Jews during the war. Israelis, he said, should think of Poles as fellow victims of the Nazis during WWII, not as the perpetrators of the Holocaust. 2) THe Polish government did not “nationalize” abandonedJewish property in Poland until 1957. When it did this, Poland was ruled by a Soviet puppet regime, not by one elected by the Polish people. Therefore, he claimed, the present Russian government, which is the “heir “ to the former Soviet, also has a greater responsibility to pay the survivors than the present-day Polish government, which was elected by the Polish people.
As to your point that some Poles collaborated with the Nazis and either handed Jews over to them or murdered them themselves, the Polish deputy prime minister did not address this issue. Just speaking for myself, I would point out that there is very little solid evidence that these Polish collaborators and murderers were numerous during the Nazi occupation. On the other hand,Israel has recognized more Poles than people of any other country in Europe as “Righteous among the Nations.”
Much of the “evidence” of Polish complicity in the Holocaust comes either from Haaretz, which hates Israel even more than it hates Poland (remember it is owned by a Germans, some of whom dislike both Jews and Poles), or a group of Polish-Jewish refugee scholars in the United States. These scholars hate Poland because the anti-Jewish Gomulka government in Poland drove them, or their parents, out of Poland in 1967-68, as part of the Soviet ’s “anti-Zionist” campaign to punish the Jews for winning the Six-day War. These scholars anger at the Gomulka government is justified, but they are wrong to “backdate” it World War II and blame the Poles for the Holocaust. Other scholars have pointed out their “statistics” as to the number of Jews killed by Poles during and after World War II are not supported by any documentary evidence, and have been pulled out of a hat.
More later.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-30/poland-told-nazis-aren-t-solely-to-blame-in-jewish-property-feud
@Adam Poland could say we can not afford to pay but are saying they do not owe nor even offer an apology. Israelis for the most part much view this topic differently than you no matter if left or right.
Poles feel no remorse nor feel they have any responsibility for what Nazi collaborators did, Poles did murder and theft include. Of course they are not anti-Semitic in the least. But to a massive degree actually. They keep telling us was all the Germans and we are just victims just like the Jews were.
I really feel for the Polish government and that they should be burdened bringing restoration to Jewish families and other victims of crimes.
@Bear I do not think that Poland’s controversial law is motivated by antisemitism, but by Poland’s fiscal realities. If it has to pay compensation to all the descendants of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust whose parents and grandparents lost their landholdings and other property in Poland, it would come to many hundreds of billions, and perhaps trillions, of dollars. According to Poland’s deputy prime minister, who gave an interview to an Israeli reporter to explain Poland’s new law, the Poles would also have to pay billions to the million or more ethnic Poles whose land and property was seized by the Polish Communist regime once it agreed to compensate the Jews. Many of these people, including the entire Polish nobility who owned most Polish land before the Communists confiscated it without compensation, still retain Polish citizenship, and once the Polish government agreed to Lapid’s demand to compensate the Jewish heirs to property, the Polish heirs to confiscated property would certainly put in their own claims.
The Poles could not possibily pay all of this money. The country would be bankrupt and would have to default on all its debts or declare national bankruptcy.
The Polish courts could possibly have to spend the next hundred years adjudicating the land claims to determine which ones were legally justified and which were not justified. This would be a very difficult process, since the Nazis destroyed all Polish records of land ownership when they occupied Poland (they intended to give all the land to Germans). The Polish courts would have been overwhelmed with claims that could neither be proved or disproved. The Polish judges would be forced to spend all their time trying to sort out the millions of land claims that would be filed, and would have no time to consider other civil cases.
I am not saying that there are no antisemites in Poland. I am not saying that there are no antisemites in the Polish government. But I do say that the Polish government would have been forced to pass this law or a similar one at some point, even if there were not a single antisemite in Poland.
@Adam I personally feel it is the moral duty of the Israeli government to rebuff the anti-Semitic actions of the Polish government.
Anit-Semitism should not be accepted anywhere.
@Adam
This is a standing goal of Lapid’s and it works towards the goals of his Leftist American masters as well. It is a very concerning agenda of this govt which will have a consequence it the future, another Leftis pillar to add to the new Leftist forest constructed of late by the newly empowered Left. I am regretful to see Bennett not stop or at least speak against it, presuming he disagrees with it. Does anyone know if he does?
This column is from Israel Hayom and JNS. The author describes how Israel is unnecessarily waging a propaganda war against Poland and Hungary, even though these countries have blocked some damaging proposed anti-Israel measures in the EU that are supported by Germany and the western European states. Under Yair Lapid, Israel is more interested in refighting World War II rather than confronting its real present-day enemies, such as Iran, Syria, Hizbollah, Hamas and the PLO.
“Shadi Othman, a spokesman for the EU in the West Bank and Gaza, told the UK’s Daily Mail at the time: ‘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.”
Where is the Bennett government pushback on this revisionism ? Dayan botched the moment , but Bennett could be the guy who fixes it. The one thing that Netanyahu did not go far enough on when he had the moment while Don was in.