T. Belman. This article was dated Feb 6/15. In yesterday’s article, Ari Biggs, Regavim’s director of international relations, said:
“But Regavim takes issue not only with Europe, but also with Israel’s bureaucracy and legal system which allows the situation to continue unabated.
“Europe has decided to go it alone, and Israel has decided to allow it,”
So which is it? Take note that Bibi made his announcement just prior to the recent elections.
European Union official defends unlicensed construction in Area C, says Palestinians have a right to build there
BY JUSTIN JALIL AND JTA February 6, 2015
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to move forward with a plan to demolish some 400 Palestinian structures built in the West Bank with European funding, Israeli media reported Friday.
The prime minister’s order came shortly after a Thursday exposé in the Daily Mail claimed that the EU sank tens of millions of euros into homes which were not granted building permits by the Israeli government.
Official EU documentation discovered by the newspaper stated that the buildings were intended to “pave the way for development and more authority of the PA over Area C,” raising concerns that the governmental organization was taking sides in the dispute by shaping the demographics of the Israeli-controlled territory.
A portion of the homes, which largely resemble prefabricated caravans, were built in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim and near the Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus, according to Israeli news site NRG.
According to the Daily Mail, the construction in 17 locations cost tens of millions in EU public funds.
On Friday, a spokesman for the European Union defended its funding for the unlicensed construction, even as another EU official had denied wrongdoing.
Shadi Othman, a communications officer at the Office of the European Union Representative in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, spoke to the Daily Mail Thursday about the union’s funding the construction of the 400 homes for Palestinians in the West Bank’s Area C, which according to the Oslo Accords remains under Israeli control until a negotiated final agreement.
“This is part of the work done to build the future Palestinian state which will live side by side with Israel,” Othman said. “Palestinians have a right to live there, build schools there, have economic development.”
Maja Kocijancic, a Brussels-based EU spokesperson, earlier denied any wrongdoing, insisting that construction had not taken place.
“The EU’s funding will provide training and expertise, to help the relevant Palestinian Authority ministries to plan and build new infrastructure and enable people to reclaim and rebuild their land there,” she said. “To date, no construction has started yet under these programs. The EU is not funding illegal projects.”
She later declined to comment on a series of photographs purporting the construction of the settlements and an EU-Oxfam sign that stated the main activities of the project was the “rehabilitation and reclamation” of land.
Othman was interviewed about footage collected by the Israeli not-for-profit Regavim, which shows structures bearing plaques with the EU logo. Regavim says the structures were erected in recent months without license from Israeli authorities.
The European Union has long complained to Israel about the thousands of homes built for Jewish settlers in Area C, rejecting Israeli claims that they are built in settlements likely to become part of Israel in a final deal.
Michael Theurer, a German member of the European Parliament and its Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, told the Daily Mail he was “taking these allegations seriously and will thoroughly investigate them.
Ari Briggs, the International Director of Regavim and the report’s principal author, insisted that the EU and Oxfam were using the project as a “Trojan horse” to undermine Israeli claims to the area.
“Area C has been identified by the anti-Israel ‘humanitarian community’ as a hot spot to push Israel,” Briggs stated.
“These organizations with EU funding are encouraging and actively aiding the illegal attempt to take over public land. This has nothing to do with human rights and everything to do with taking advantage of less privileged nomadic societies for political goals,” insisted Briggs.
James Carver, a British MEP for the West Midlands region, wrote a letter this week to the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs condemning the “illegal” project: “The structures all bear the name and flag of the EU and official EU agents have been photographed participating in overseeing the construction, so the active involvement of the EU can hardly be denied.”
“I kindly call upon you to do your utmost to bring an end to these illegal and destructive activities,” he wrote.
Alan Baker, an international lawyer who took part in the creation of the Oslo Accords, accused the EU of interfering in the conflict.
“The EU is a signatory to the Oslo Accords, so they cannot pick and choose when they recognize it,” he said. According to international law, all building in Area C must have permission from Israel, whether it is temporary or permanent.”
“The same principle applies anywhere in the world. If you want to build, you need planning permission…The EU is ignoring international law and taking concrete steps to influence the facts on the ground,” Baker stated.
An unnamed Israeli government source claimed the venture exemplified “the double standards of the EU”, which “deplores Israeli settlements in the West Bank while simultaneously funding its own for Palestinians: “If Israel started building houses in the middle of Hyde Park, the British government would immediately take them down…The EU is doing things that would never be acceptable in Europe.”
MK Yariv Levin also accused the Europeans of double-speak.
“It is hypocritical of the EU to criticize Israeli construction while at the same time actively supporting and practically taking part in illegal Palestinian settlement construction on Israeli land,” the Likud MK charged.
The European Union is opposed to Jewish construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, maintaining it is counterproductive to the emergence of a Palestinian state.
Everyone should take note, has Ted pointed out, that the article is 3 months old and before the election. I dont beleive that anything was demolished in those 3 months.
Did someone tell a lie????
I wonder who????
Ted Belman Said:
It is not ONE house, and they will likely not be demolished. BB slaps the Jews in the face and the suckers are clueless.
the greatest villain in this scenario is Benjamin Netanyahu who has been collaborating with the EU for his 2 terms in a swindle of the Jewish people. Up until now I considered this a speculation but all evidence points to BB being a liar and a swindler of the Jewish people. I would like to eat my words but I am sorry to say that my wish seems incongruent with facts.
there is no way this could have happened for so long without the complete agreement of netanyahu, and it was kept hush hush.
I talked to Ari Briggs today and he said Bibi was electioneering. He is not demolishing the houses so soon.
I agree, but save the kol hakavod for when Netanyahu cooperates in legalizing the Jewish outposts, some of which have had Jewish mothers and fathers raising Jewish children for many years. The whole idea of Zionism is the rebuilding of the Jewish nation on the soil of Eretz-Yisrael; not European Union funded housing for non-Jews.
What’s more, I don’t give a damn what the non-Jewish world or their Israel-hating Jewish traitors think of any of the above. The lands which had belonged exclusively to the hundreds of native American tribes for more than 15,000 years were taken from them by conquest, guile, and outright oppression, for purposes of creating the first 48 states of the United States of America.
It was in fact the greatest land theft in human history, and 17th, 18th, and 19th century America got away with it because they thought it was the manifest destiny of the United States. Well, the manifest destiny of the Jewish nation is to retake and expand the lands promised to us by HaShem. He didn’t tell Moshe and Yehoshua to negotiate the issue before a consortium of foreign powers such as the ruling monarchs of Egypt and Mesopotamia, and possibly including the Amelekites.
And all things considered, the American Indians made a hell of a lot better neighbors than any gang of Arabs.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Don’t just demolish the structures, arrest the filthy EUronazis who are there to build them.
Then put them on a leaky boat 10 miles off the coast with no motor. 🙂
In shock I say KOL HAKAVOD if they are actually demolished.