EU warnings to Israel remain unheard
Israel’s ties to the European Union still are complicated by settlement policies.
At a seminar hosted by the Geneva Initiative on June 27, the European Union’s ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, said that EU member states "are losing their patience with concerns not being treated" by Israel. The ambassador was referring to warnings published in France, Spain and Italy about maintaining economic ties with Israeli companies operating in the occupied territories.
On July 4, 2013, I published an article here titled, “EU Loses Patience with Israel.” That was after the European Commission published directives stating that any Israeli organization asking for funds, for the right to participate in a project or compete for EU grants or prizes must first declare that it has no ties to settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights.
At the same time, in early July, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni expressed herself in the same way. Livni, who's responsible for the diplomatic process with the Palestinians, told the audience at an accountants’ conference in Eilat that in Europe, “Israel is seen as a colonialist state. Therefore, it won't stop at the settlements, but [will spread] to all of Israel.”
Livni’s dire prediction was never fulfilled. “The diplomatic process” saved Israel, as it always does. A few days after the EU’s foreign ministers — led by the foreign ministers of Britain and France — planned to release a sharp statement condemning construction in the settlements and declare Israel responsible for the failure of the negotiations, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced the resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to caution the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, that releasing such a statement would interfere with Kerry’s efforts to advance the negotiations. The staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem then chastised the European ambassadors in the country, saying that the EU is focused on promoting crises with Israel, instead of focusing on ways to further the negotiations.
