{"id":223479,"date":"2020-12-18T08:29:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T08:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=223479"},"modified":"2020-12-20T07:30:03","modified_gmt":"2020-12-20T07:30:03","slug":"israel-destroys-and-steals-2-million-worth-of-eu-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=223479","title":{"rendered":"Israel destroys and steals $2 million worth of EU aid"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Cronin \u2013 Electronic Intifada Dec 16, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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Israel has repeatedly destroyed aid projects financed by the European Union.\u00a0Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Imagine that you had neighbors who were constantly stealing your belongings or damaging your property.<\/p>\n

How would you respond? By inviting those neighbors to a party? By celebrating how they have the same \u201cvalues\u201d<\/a> as you?<\/p>\n

Israel is an abusive neighbor for the European Union<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Through a freedom of information request, I learned that Israel has caused destruction worth more than $2 million to EU aid projects in the occupied West Bank over the past five years.<\/p>\n

Yet rather than taking any action against Israel, EU representatives regularly sip<\/a> champagne with and shower gifts on their abusive neighbor.<\/p>\n

A note drawn up by the European Commission<\/a> states that Israel has \u201cdemolished or seized\u201d almost 560 \u201cstructures\u201d within aid projects since 2015. The projects were financed by the EU collectively and by its governments individually.<\/p>\n

More than 70 of those structures were destroyed or confiscated between January and October this year, according to the note.<\/p>\n

It would be wrong to remain dispassionate while examining these figures.<\/p>\n

The EU has been adding up the amount of damage inflicted on its aid projects by Israel for the past two decades. The accounting exercises have not been followed up with action.<\/p>\n

Complicated?<\/h2>\n

Next month will mark the 20th anniversary of a threat that has proven idle. In January 2002, EU foreign ministers issued a statement<\/a> that they \u201creserve[d] the right to claim reparation\u201d from Israel \u201cin the appropriate fora.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after that warning was made, it was effectively withdrawn. Chris Patten, then the EU\u2019s external relations commissioner, said<\/a> barely two months later that starting legal proceedings against Israel would be \u201chorrendously complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

His claim was based on the understanding that the EU no longer owns aid projects it funds once the relevant checks are signed. Filing a lawsuit would, therefore, be a matter for aid recipients.<\/p>\n

Contrary to Patten\u2019s argument, the issues involved are not at all complicated.<\/p>\n

If the EU will not do anything itself, its lawyers can advise the aid recipients or administrators \u2013 who include Palestinian communities and international charities active in the West Bank and Gaza \u2013 on how to sue Israel.<\/p>\n

Other possibilities would be to give Israel less money or, better still, no money at all.<\/p>\n

Israel is a major beneficiary of EU subsidies. The EU has awarded<\/a> nearly $1.4 billion to Israeli firms and institutions under Horizon 2020, a multiannual scheme for scientific research.<\/p>\n

Reducing Israel\u2019s subsidies as a penalty for the destruction of aid projects would not be too arduous a task.<\/p>\n

While all of the subsidies that the EU gives to Israel should be opposed, some are completely indefensible. Mekorot<\/a>, a state-owned water company, benefits<\/a> from Horizon 2020, even though it appears on a United Nations blacklist of firms active in Israel\u2019s illegal settlements.<\/p>\n

No appetite for accountability<\/h2>\n

The essential problem is that there is no real appetite for holding Israel accountable among either the Brussels bureaucracy or among EU governments.<\/p>\n

Belgium<\/a> has tried to present itself as particularly upset by Israel\u2019s destructive conduct over the past few years. Just last month, Belgium complained<\/a> that four Palestinian homes it had funded near the West Bank city of Hebron<\/a> were demolished by Israel.<\/p>\n

The Belgians timidly asked Israel for compensation. Timid appeals are completely useless when dealing with a brutal occupier.<\/p>\n

The destruction is taking place within a wider context of Israeli racism toward the Palestinians. It is part of a bigger picture whereby Palestinians are being treated with extreme cruelty because \u2013 as far as Israel is concerned \u2013 they belong to the \u201cwrong\u201d ethnicity.<\/p>\n

Those who speak frankly about Israel\u2019s apartheid policies run the risk of being smeared.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Germany, which holds the EU\u2019s rotating presidency, jointly hosted an online conference titled \u201cTogether against anti-Semitism\u201d with Israel\u2019s embassy in Brussels<\/p>\n

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?"Together against Antisemitism" Conference<\/p>\n

Thanks to @EU2020DE<\/a> & @IsraelinEU<\/a> for organising today's event, moderated by EUJS's @Bini_Guttmann<\/a> where we heard from fantastic panelists on issues relating to combating antisemitism via @TheIHRA<\/a> definition & robust legal frameworks. pic.twitter.com\/EX43oLzocM<\/a><\/p>\n

— EUJS – European Union of Jewish Students (@EUJS) December 14, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n