At least verbally, most European leaders seem clear beyond a shadow of a doubt. Not only do they expect and demand a complete halt to Israel’s policy of building colonies in the occupied territories, but they see it as an essential step which will resume the so-called peace talks. In other words, no colony freeze means no prospect for a lasting peace. However, if that was indeed the case, then why do European countries do their utmost to undermine the very foreign policy agenda they tirelessly advocate?
In a recent interview with Spiegel Online (November 12), the Luxembourg Foreign Minister, Jean Asselborn, said Israel “must halt settlement [colony] construction entirely” before negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PA) restart. His statements were particularly sharp, coming at an age of European diplomatic tardiness — caused by a relentless economic crisis and rapidly changing Arab political landscape. “The Israeli settlement [colony] policy is an affront to every Palestinian because it is a constant provocation,” he said.
Asselborn seemed disinterested in repeating cliche-like protestations regarding the Israeli policies. He sounded genuinely absent by Israel’s intransigence. “The Israeli government is permitting the construction of apartments on land where they do not belong. There are roads that only settlers [colonists] are allowed to use and separate streets for the Palestinian people. In addition, the number of violent acts perpetrated by settlers [colonists] increased by 32 per cent during the past year. Many of the perpetrators go unpunished.”
That strong sentiment is not new, although it largely remains a sentiment. Less than a week earlier, foreign ministers of three European powers — Germany, Britain and France — made similar statements. They had joined forces from Berlin on November 6, criticising Israel over its recent decision to permit the construction of more than 1,200 units in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. “Our clear expectation of all sides in the Middle East is that they refrain from anything that will make the resumption of negotiations more difficult,” the German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, said. He called Israel’s colony policy “a hindrance to the peace process”.
However, Europe’s problem is hardly the lack of rightly-sounded statements, but rather its inaction, on one hand, and, more dangerously, its actual complicity in financing and sustaining the illegal colony enterprise. Indeed, no other issue highlights European inconsistency and self-defeating policies as that of the European Union (EU) stance regarding the illegal Jewish colonies in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Not only does the EU do little to show real resolve in discouraging the growth of the colonies — which now occupy nearly 42 per cent of the total size of the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem and most of their natural resources — but, in brazenly direct ways, it actually funds the growth of these very colonies. The oddity is that the EU does so while continuing to be a major source of fund of the PNA and tireless advocate of the two-state solution.
Facts and numbers unmistakably demonstrate EU direct investment in the Israeli colonial project. In a new report titled Trading Away Peace: How Europe helps sustain illegal Israeli settlements [colonies], 22 NGOs expose a most revealing European duplicity. The NGOs included major organisations such as Christian Aid and the International Federation for Human Rights. “The most recent estimate of the value of EU imports from settlements [colonies] provided by the Israeli government to the World Bank is $300 million (Dh1.1 billion) a year. This is approximately 15 times the annual value of EU imports from Palestinians,” the report showed. “With more than four million Palestinians and over 500,000 Israeli settlers [colonists] living in the occupied territory, this means the EU imports over 100 times more per settler [colonist] than per Palestinian.”
Europe is Israel’s largest trade partner, followed by the US. Without such major trade routes, the Israeli economy is likely to suffer the consequences of Israeli government policies. Moreover, the amount cited above is likely much larger since much of Israeli products originating in the occupied territories are marketed under the ‘Made in Israel’ label, simply because many colony-based companies have branches in Israel. A case in point is SodaStream, which produces an at-home carbonation device. The vast majority (more than 70 per cent) of its products are sold in European countries, despite the fact that the manufacturing of the product takes place in Ma’ale Adumim, a Jewish colony built illegally over Palestinian land in occupied East Jerusalem and constantly in a state of expansion. Companies based in illegal colonies receive generous tax breaks and other incentives, as in using ‘Jewish-only’ roads, which Palestinians are not allowed to use, although the roads are constructed on their land. “Because the company also maintains a factory in Israel,” wrote Eline Gordts in the Huffington Post, it can sell its products under the label ‘Made in Israel.’” This strategy can be successful in avoiding the formality of branding products made in Jewish colonies as such, which is applied by two European countries.
The EU has little quarrel with being a major market that keeps the colonies prosperous and economically competitive. It is in fact doing its utmost to integrate the Israeli economy into the larger European market. The latest of such efforts took place on October 23 when the European Parliament ratified the EU-Israel Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance (ACAA). The ratification is barely an isolated gesture, for it is part of ceaseless efforts that go back to the 1995 Association Agreement, which supposedly meant to reward Israel for its peacemaking efforts and help it break away from its regional isolation. Despite Israel’s incessant efforts at colonising much of the West Bank, continued “legal” and physical isolation of occupied East Jerusalem, and protracted siege on Gaza, the EU has done little to underscore any objection to Israel’s violation of international law. “It is worth remembering,” wrote Emanuele Scimia in Asia Times, “that on July 24, the European Council, the EU’s decision-making body, already agreed to upgrade trade and diplomatic relations with Israel in more than 60 sectors.”
The growth of the colonies is accompanied by a parallel destruction of “Palestinian structures — including those funded by European donor support”. Neither is the EU actively defending its declared policies regarding colonies, nor is it taking any meaningful legal action against the systematic Israeli destruction of EU-funded projects in the occupied territories. Even worse, according to the report, “some European-owned companies have invested in settlements [colonies] and related infrastructure or are providing services to them. Cases that have been reported include G4S (UK/Denmark), Alstom (France), Veolia (France) and Heidelberg Cement (Germany).”
European policies may seem irrational at the surface — as in, for example, Germany criticising Israeli colonies, yet permitting Heidelberg Cement to profit from the occupation. However, political absurdity is not exactly a trait of European politics, nor can such contradictions last for so long, if political incongruity was not itself the very policy that the EU wished to pursue.
‘Double-faced’ does not even begin to describe the EU’s approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in general and Israel’s illegal Jewish colonies in particular. Something far more sinister must be at play, and Europe must understand that its balancing act is unsustainable and surely self-defeating, at best.
Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story.
