Israel's pro-settler policy backfires
This posting has these items:
1) Reuters: EU defends labelling goods made in Israeli settlements, touches all bases;
2) EurActiv: EU defends decision to label goods made in Israeli settlements, resolution not a policy change but helpful clarification of how and why the oPt will not be treated as part of Israel;
3) FT: EU foreign ministers state opposition to Israeli settlement policy, clear account of what’s at stake – and how Greece came to Israel’s rescue;
4) Haaretz: Israeli Response to EU Labelling of Settlement Products Has Backfired, Barak Ravid points out it will be the settlers who suffer from Israel’s reckless settlement expansion – and he gives us a backstage view of the wheeling and dealing to get the final resolution;
5) Notes on some of the principal EU bodies and on EU-Israel trade.
A settler plants a flag in the ground at a new outpost north of the West Bank settlement of Itamar in 2011. The Europeans will not buy their agricultural produce. Photo by Moti Milrod
EU defends labelling goods made in Israeli settlements
By Robin Emmott, UK Reuters
January 18, 2016
BRUSSELS–The European Union reinforced on Monday its position that products made in Israeli settlements must be clearly labelled in Europe, despite growing tensions with Israel over the issue, but stressed that the bloc opposes any boycott of the Jewish state.
EU foreign ministers said the guidelines on labels for farm and other products, which were unveiled in November and branded discriminatory by Israel, were there to explain EU law and did not mark a change in the European Union’s long-held opposition to Israeli settlements.
“The EU and its member States are committed to ensure continued, full and effective implementation of existing EU legislation and bilateral arrangements applicable to settlements products,” ministers said in a statement.
That move appears directed at the EU’s desire for a more active role in seeking peace between Israel and the Palestinians, under EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
Ministers reiterated the EU’s position that the lands Israel has occupied since the 1967 Middle East war – including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights – are not part of the internationally recognised borders of Israel.
As such, goods from there cannot be labelled “Made in Israel” and should be labelled as coming from settlements, which the EU considers illegal under international law.
The move appears directed at the European Union’s desire for a more active role in seeking peace between Israel and the Palestinians, under EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
Following the publication of the guidelines, Israel has suspended contact with EU bodies involved in peace efforts with Palestinians, though the government says bilateral ties with nearly all EU countries are strong.
It also comes at a time of high tension between Israel and Palestinians, with the attacks by Palestinians on Israelis in part fuelled by the occupation and the growth of settlements.
Israel’s foreign ministry said in response to the statement on Monday that the EU continues to hold Israel to double standard, while ignoring the Palestinian role in stalled peace talks and about 200 other conflicts over territory in the world.
The Palestine Liberation Organization welcomed the EU statement and called for greater European involvement.
EU foreign ministers blamed both sides during the last four months of violence, condemning the killings on all sides and urging Israeli to address the deeper causes.
“Security measures alone cannot stop the cycle of violence,” ministers said, calling for “a fundamental change of policy by Israel with regard to the occupied Palestinian territory.”
EU defends decision to label goods made in Israeli settlements
By EurActiv
January 19, 2015
The European Union reinforced on Monday (18 January) its position that products made in Israeli settlements must be clearly labelled in Europe, despite growing tensions with Israel over the issue, but stressed that the bloc opposes any boycott of the Jewish state.
EU foreign ministers said the guidelines on labels for farm and other products, which were unveiled in November and branded discriminatory by Israel, were there to explain EU law and did not mark a change in the European Union’s long-held opposition to Israeli settlements.
“The EU and its member states are committed to ensure continued, full and effective implementation of existing EU legislation and bilateral arrangements applicable to settlements products,” ministers said in a statement.
Ministers reiterated the EU’s position that the lands Israel has occupied since the 1967 Middle East war – including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights – are not part of the internationally recognised borders of Israel.
As such, goods from there cannot be labelled “Made in Israel” and should be labelled as coming from settlements, which the EU considers illegal under international law.
Following the publication of the guidelines, Israel has suspended contact with EU bodies involved in peace efforts with Palestinians, though the government says bilateral ties with nearly all EU countries are strong.
That move appears directed at the European Union’s desire for a more active role in seeking peace between Israel and the Palestinians, under EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
It also comes at a time of high tension between Israel and Palestinians, with the attacks by Palestinians on Israelis in part fuelled by the occupation and the growth of settlements.
Israel’s foreign ministry said in response to the statement on Monday that the EU continues to hold Israel to [a] double standard, while ignoring the Palestinian role in stalled peace talks and about 200 other conflicts over territory in the world.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation welcomed the EU statement and called for greater European involvement.
EU foreign ministers blamed both sides during the last four months of violence, condemning the killings on all sides and urging Israeli to address the deeper causes.
“Security measures alone cannot stop the cycle of violence,” ministers said, calling for “a fundamental change of policy by Israel with regard to the occupied Palestinian territory.”
BACKGROUND
On 4 November 2015, the European Union decided to impose a label on goods originating from the Israeli-occupied territories.
The EU does not recognise Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, lands it captured in the 1967 Middle East war, and says the labelling policy aims to distinguish between goods made inside the internationally accepted borders of Israel and those made outside.
Israel’s Economy Ministry estimates the impact will be about $50 million a year, affecting fresh produce such as grapes and dates, wine, poultry, honey, olive oil and cosmetics.
That is around a fifth of the $200-$300 million worth of goods produced in settlements each year, but a drop in the ocean next to the $30 billion of goods and services Israel exports to the EU annually, a third of all its exports.
Also potentially affected are the more than 20,000 Palestinians who work in settlements, earning salaries far higher than those working on Palestinian-run farms.
Israeli ministers have cast the EU’s plans as akin to a boycott of Israel, regarding it as little different to the boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS) movement that Palestinians — who seek a state on occupied land including the West Bank and East Jerusalem — have advocated in recent years.
They have also accused the EU of double standards, saying EU labelling is not enforced in other places of occupation, such as northern Cyprus, Western Sahara, Kashmir or Tibet.
EU foreign ministers state opposition to Israeli settlement policy
By Alex Barker in Brussels, Financial Times
January 18, 2016
European foreign ministers hit out at Israeli settlement policies on Monday in a contentious statement that exposed the internal divisions within the bloc over Israel and Palestine policy.
Israeli diplomats were scrambling over the weekend to water-down a slightly tougher draft EU statement, warning that the language bluntly differentiated between Israel and occupied territories and threatened to inflame relations with Benjamin Netanyahu, the rightwing Israeli leader.
Greece issued late objections on Friday and was later joined by Poland and Hungary. It forced an unexpected discussion among foreign ministers gathering in Brussels on Monday, laying bare differences that have often hobbled Europe’s common diplomacy in the region.
[All EU agreements with Israel] must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967
– EU foreign ministers’ statement
Even with amendments, the final version is likely to aggravate strains over the EU’s decision in November to issue long-delayed labelling guidelines for some goods made in Jewish settlements on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six Day war. Israel retaliated at the time by suspending some of its co-operation with the EU.
The statement agreed by foreign ministers on Monday stressed their “strong opposition to Israel’s settlement policy” and included a critical reference to Israel’s proposed law to non-governmental organisations to disclose whether the majority of their funding came from foreign governments or institutions.
The ministers also committed the EU to “continued, full and effective implementation” of labelling of settlement products, in spite of the refusal by a handful of countries, including Greece and Hungary, to abide by the guidelines.
– EU foreign ministers’ statement
Israeli government officials and ministers have criticised the labelling measures as discriminatory and dangerously reminiscent of the persecution of Jews on the continent. Israel feared that tougher EU language on settlements would encourage some states to take further economic measures.
The EU has a free-trade agreement with Israel but the bloc sees the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as illegal under international law. The EU insists the labelling guidelines do not amount to sanctions or a boycott of Israeli products.
A draft of the text on Friday said the EU would “continue to unequivocally and explicitly make the distinction between Israel and all territories occupied by Israel in 1967”. This was softened to say all EU agreements with Israel “must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967”.
Israel’s last-ditch success in taking the edge off some language reflects the deepening ties with Athens in particular, which have grown stronger as Greece and Israel have forged closer economic, energy and political ties.
Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief, said the final text was “a good basis for our common position and our engagement with the Middle East peace process”.
Violence has picked up between Palestinians and Israelis in recent months, with scores of Palestinian attacks and Israel reprisal shootings.
The EU Council in 2014.
Israeli Response to EU Labelling of Settlement Products Has Backfired
Israel’s decision to freeze contacts with EU on Palestinian issue and petty acts of vengeance against few European states only increased European anger; main victims of Israel’s policies are settlers.
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz
January 17, 2016
There was “no small crisis” between Israel and the European Union, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a meeting of the Likud Knesset caucus last week. The resolution that the foreign ministers of the EU’s 28 member states are set to adopt when they meet in Brussels on Monday could turn Netanyahu’s remark into the understatement of the year.
To Netanyahu’s credit it should be said that in that same meeting he also said that “things are still open” regarding European sanctions against the settlements. He was right. The expected resolution, first reported in Haaretz, is an expansion, exacerbation and clarification of the policy of distinguishing between Israel and the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
European diplomats say the draft resolution embodies the spirit of a report published a few months ago by the European Council on Foreign Affairs addressing the need to make the distinction between Israel and the settlements a key component in European policy with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If this resolution is passed tomorrow, that is precisely what it will do.
Enshrining this “policy of distinction” in European law and in agreements with Israel in the realm of economics, research and development, law, air travel and visa exemptions could lead to serious restrictions on companies, groups and individuals working, based or living in settlements. Moreover, focusing on violence by settlers against Palestinians means that the suggestion that extreme right-wing activists would be subject to personal sanctions by the EU, including denial of entry to the continent, is not completely unfounded.
The draft proposal also includes a call for additional practical measures to rescue the two-state solution and to hold an international peace conference.
The country behind the latter clause is France, which seeks to once again promote a UN Security Council resolution on the settlements, one that would determine principles for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or at least convene a peace conference in Paris.
The harsh wording of the draft proposal and the negotiations behind the scenes among the leading countries in Europe indicate that the Israeli response to the EU’s resolution to publish directives for labelling products made in the settlements has boomeranged. Israel’s announcement that it was freezing contacts on the Palestinian issue with the EU institutions in Brussels and petty acts of vengeance against a few European states that supported the labelling only increased the anger and frustration in Europe toward Israel.
European diplomats say the response of the government in Jerusalem has increased the motivation of the larger European countries — France, Britain, Italy, Spain and even Germany — to present a united front vis-a-vis Israel and issue a sharply worded resolution regarding the settlements. Israeli diplomats said that their colleagues in some European capitals warned them that the resolution that was coming would be harsh, but they added that the wording reflects the current atmosphere on the continent with regard to Israel.
On a number of occasions, including last Friday at a reception for representatives of foreign media outlets, Netanyahu claimed that Israel’s problem is not with the various countries in Europe, but with the EU machine — the ostensibly anti-Israel bureaucrats in Brussels — and that if only they would disappear, all the problems would be resolved.
But the reality, at least in the case of the current draft resolution, is the polar opposite. European diplomats involved in the formulation of the resolution say that EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and the EU’s foreign service had originally presented a relatively soft version.
According to the diplomats, when representatives of the five big countries on the continent saw the draft, they demanded it be made significantly harsher.
“Mogherini wanted to thaw relations with Israel a bit and publish a softened resolution,” a European diplomat said. However, he added: “The five big countries said ‘we can’t deny our policies with regard to settlements and the distinction between Israel and the settlements. The only countries that in fact support the Israeli position are Israel, Greece, Cyprus and Hungary.’”
Nearly a year into the term of Israel’s most right-wing government ever, it seems the main victims of its policies are the settlers and the settlements.
There is an almost total freeze on planning and construction, even in the major settlement blocs and in East Jerusalem, and the security situation in the territories is deteriorating. Europe decides to label products from the settlements, Brazil refuses to accept the appointment of an Israeli ambassador because he lives in a settlement and was chairman of the Yesha Council of settlements and now, this resolution.
EU: Agreements with Israel do not apply to settlements
EU stressed that ‘this does not constitute a boycott of Israel’
By Tal Shalev, i24 news
January 18,2016
The European Union finalized its resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and Israeli settlements Monday, in which the bloc reiterated its existing policy concerning products produced in Israeli settlements and agreements between member states and Israel.
The resolution confirms that the EU considers Israel’s borders to end at the 1967 Green Line, and that therefore any arrangements made between Israel and member countries will not apply to settlements.
“The EU and its Member States are committed to ensure continued, full and effective implementation of existing EU legislation and bilateral arrangements applicable to settlements products,” the resolution reads. adding that “the EU expresses its commitment to ensure that – in line with international law – all agreements between the State of Israel and the EU must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967.”
The EU stressed that “this does not constitute a boycott of Israel which the EU strongly opposes.”
Both Israeli and European officials acknowledged that it was not a new policy but a confirmation of existing policy.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu together with the Israeli Foreign Ministry worked on a last minute push ahead of Monday’s meeting of the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council, to halt the first draft of the resolution which would have broadened the distinction between Israel and the territories, and applied it to bilateral agreements between Israel and each of the 28 member states.
According to a senior official in Jerusalem, Netanyahu spoke to officials in Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, asking them to oppose the first version of the draft resolution, saying the text was unbalanced and biased against Israel. The push was successful as the clause was removed from the final version.
“Our intense diplomatic work prevented wording applying to each member state,” said an Israeli official.
In response to the resolution, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement in which it said that “following intense diplomatic effort by the PM and the foreign ministry, the EU softened its resolution. However the EU continues to treat Israel with a double standard, while totally ignoring the Palestinian Authority’s responsibility to the stalemate and to incitement which feeds Palestinian terror.”
“Out of 200 territorial conflicts in the world, the EU singles out and discriminates against Israel. this approach prevents the EU from playing a fair role in settling the conflict,” it continued.
Leader of the opposition and head of the Zionist Union party, Isaac Herzog, said that “it is unfortunate that the EU is helping BDS. That is the meaning of the decision they made tonight. They are not differentiating the legitimate settlement blocs and isolate settlements and that is wrong,” adding that “the sad thing is that Netanyahu’s failed foreign policy has contributed to that, angering European countries.
Relations have been strained between Israel and the EU following the bloc’s publishing of guidelines on the labeling of products from Jewish settlements last November. Following the EU decision, Israel suspended a number of dialogue meetings with European officials, mainly regarding Palestinian projects and EU projects in Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank.
The EU has held for many years that a final agreement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be based on a two-state solution, and that Israeli settlements are illegal and undermine peace efforts.
In the resolution, the 28-nation bloc also restated its commitment to a two-state solution and said it would closely monitor developments on the ground which undermine that outcome.
The statement expressed the EU’s deep concern at continuing violence, holding both sides to account for their actions.
“The EU firmly condemns the terror attacks and violence from all sides and in any circumstances, including the death of children,” it said.
The European Union is a house with many mansions.
There are 28 member states. ie European countries and:
The EEAS -The European External Action Service, based in Brussels. This is made up of appointed officials. At the moment, Federica Mogherini is its High Representative. It has delegations in many countries.
The European Commission, Brussels, the executive arm of the EU and main proposer of legislation. It proposes a President to the European Parliament – which usually accepts the advice. The President (*currrently Jean-Claude Juncker) selects the 27 other Commissioners (who member countries propose). These are full-time jobs for the five-year term of office.
Foreign Affairs Council
The Foreign Affairs Council is made up of European Union Member State Ministers responsible for Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development. These Ministers attend monthly meetings to discuss foreign policy, trade, security, defence and development matters.The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini chairs the Foreign Affairs Council meetings, except for commercial policy issues – when the rotating Presidency takes over the chair. Federica Mogherini is also a Vice-President of the European Commission, ensuring the consistency and coordination of the EU’s external action.
The European parliament, directly elected by citizens of all EU countries. The MEPs are grouped in political blocs. It meets in Strasbourg. It is one of two chambers for passing legislation..
Consilium, or Council of the EU also has legislative powers and meets in Brussels. It is made up of national government ministers depending on the topic of debate. When it is foreign policy the foreign ministers of the 28 states meet as the Foreign Affairs Council.
There are other EU bodies.
from Wikipedia
ACAA free trade agreement in pharmaceuticals (2012)
Upgrading the Association Agreement has long been on hold following a vote in the European Parliament to postpone the issue in December 2008, due to continuing settlement building and the blockade of the Gaza Strip.[10]The Agreements on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA) which focus on pharmaceutical products were adopted by the European Parliament on 23 October 2012, following a debate that had lasted for more than two years. Ratification of the ACAA will make it easier to export Israeli pharmaceuticals and other goods to the 27 EU member countries, and vice versa. Following a controversial debate, 379 members of the European Parliament voted in favor and 230 against ratification. The ACAA are in conformity with the Brita ruling on the non-preferential access of goods produced in the Israeli settlements.
Open skies agreement
In June 2013, Israel and the EU signed an open skies agreement, which is expected to come into effect in 2018.Trade
Trade between the EU and Israel is conducted on the basis of the Association Agreement. The European Union is Israel’s biggest trading partner.[15][16] In 2013 the total volume of bilateral trade (excluding diamonds) came to over €27 billion. In 2013, 32% of Israel’s exports (excluding diamonds) went to the EU, and 34% of its imports (excluding diamonds) came from the EU.Total EU trade with Israel rose from €19.4 billion in 2003 to €31.0 billion in 2012 and €31.4 billion in 2013. EU exports to Israel reached €17.9 billion in 2013, while imports from Israel were €13.5 billion. The trade deficit with Israel was €4.4 billion in the EU’s favour in 2013.
Under the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement, the EU and Israel have free trade in industrial products. The two sides have granted each other significant trade concessions for certain agricultural products, in the form of tariff reduction or elimination, either within quotas or for unlimited quantities.
Science and culture
Israel was the first non-European country to be associated to the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Technical Development (RTD). Israel’s special status is the result of its high level of scientific and research capability and the dense network of long-standing relations in scientific and technical co-operation between Israel and the EU. The European Commission signed an agreement with Israel in July 2004 allowing for its participation in the EU’s Galileo project for a global navigation satellite system. As of 2014, Israel was a member of the European science organization, CERN, becoming the only non-European member.