{"id":50072,"date":"2014-11-24T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2014-11-24T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=50072"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:27:17","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:27:17","slug":"haaretz-obtains-full-document-of-eu-proposed-sanctions-against-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/11\/haaretz-obtains-full-document-of-eu-proposed-sanctions-against-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Haaretz Obtains Full Document of EU-Proposed Sanctions against Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sanctions could apply to Israeli politicians opposed to the two-state solution, which could include Bennett and Rivlin; steps against European companies working in settlements; punitive measures against Palestinians over ‘negative measures.’<\/em><\/p>\n

An internal European Union<\/a> document on proposed sanctions against Israel, which Haaretz obtained in its entirety on Monday, reveals new details on the suggestions being made in the internal discussions among EU member states that have been taking place in Brussels. Among the options under consideration are measures against European companies that work in settlements<\/a> in the West Bank<\/a> and East Jerusalem<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If this measure should be carried out, it could harm quite a few Israeli businesses that work with European companies on projects in the settlements. For example, the Dutch Foreign Ministry recommended that the Dutch water company Vitens<\/a> not carry out projects in the settlements in collaboration with Israel\u2019s water company, Mekorot. Several months previously, the Dutch government recommended that the Royal Haskoning infrastructure company reconsider constructing a sewage purification plant in East Jerusalem for the Jerusalem municipality.<\/p>\n

High-ranking European diplomats who were involved in discussions about the document told Haaretz that work on the topic began on September 11. The EU\u2019s Political and Security Committee in Brussels, which is made up of the ambassadors of the EU\u2019s 28 member states, gave the committee of experts on Middle Eastern affairs \u2013 which is known in EU jargon as the Mashreq-Maghreb Working Party, or MaMa for short \u2013 the task of drafting a document containing the response measures to acts by the Israeli government that are liable to make the two-state solution an impossibility.<\/p>\n

Examples of this are construction projects in the E1 area between Ma\u2019aleh Adumim and Jerusalem, and in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Givat Hamatos and Har Homa, both of which are over the Green Line. The European Union believes that construction in these places endangers the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state with territorial contiguity and could keep Jerusalem from being the capital of both states.<\/p>\n

\"eu<\/a>The high-ranking European diplomats emphasized that, contrary to the claims of Israeli Foreign Ministry officials, the EU European External Action Service \u2013 and particularly its director, Christian Berger \u2013 served only as coordinator between the member states that made the action proposals included in the document.<\/p>\n

\u201cA large group of member states pushed for this move after the failure of the talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and after the war in Gaza,\u201d the European diplomats said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral states, including some that are considered great friends of Israel, are the ones who conceived the move and are now hiding behind the EU\u2019s foreign service so that it can act as the bad cop.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senior European diplomats said the document was written after a mandate was received from the political echelon of all 28 member states. \u201cThis is not a case in which eurocrats in Brussels are working against Israel on their own,\u201d the European diplomats said. \u201cThis is a sign that a great deal of anger and frustration exist in the member states. In recent months there were meetings of European foreign ministers in which ministers, who are considered extremely close to Israel, spoke in the most critical way against the policies of Netanyahu\u2019s government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The European diplomats added that although the Israeli Foreign Ministry knows very well which countries are behind this move, it finds it convenient to accuse the EU\u2019s foreign service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact is that there is an agreement among all 28 member countries of the European Union to discuss measures against Israel, and that is what should worry the government in Jerusalem and the Israeli public,\u201d they said. \u201cThis paper will be handed over to the political echelon in Europe, which will decide which actions, if at all, to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full document about the sanctions includes further measures in addition to the ones reported in the two articles on the topic that were published in Haaretz over the past two days.<\/p>\n

The section about relations with the Palestinians proposes that the EU reassess \u201cEU funding or capacity-building activities indirectly helping to perpetuate the status quo of occupation\u201d to make sure that the funds are not used indirectly to perpetuate the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.<\/p>\n

That section also proposes \u201csupport, or non-opposition,\u201d of unilateral Palestinian actions such as \u201capplications to international organizations\u201d or requests for recognition.<\/p>\n

The document also proposes examining the possibility that additional European countries recognize a Palestinian state, as Sweden did recently.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the paper also suggests punitive measures against the Palestinians. For example, in response to negative actions by the Palestinians, \u201cthe EU could continue to dissuade [the Palestinians] from moving ahead in the context of international organizations and use its leverage to that end.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the section about bilateral relations with Israel, the document proposes actions such as a \u201cno contact policy with settler organizations\/Refuse to engage with settlers, including public figures and those publicly rejecting the two-state solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

A measure of this kind could lead to a boycott of senior government ministers such as Naftali Bennett and Uri Ariel of Habayit Hayehudi, many Knesset members from Likud, and, even in extreme cases, President Reuven Rivlin, who does not support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.<\/p>\n

The document also states that one of the measures could be a reassessment of the distribution of EU funds that are provided to joint projects with Israel \u201cin line with the \u2018more for more, less for less\u2019 policy.\u201d In other words, it also includes an incentive in the form of greater European investments in joint projects with Israel in response to progress in the peace process.<\/p>\n

Another incentive in the document is the issuing of statements, coordinated with all 28 EU member states, \u201cto openly support Israeli leaders taking hard decisions and help recreating a positive dynamic, including in relations with the Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 haaretz.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sanctions could apply to Israeli politicians opposed to the two-state solution, which could include Bennett and Rivlin; steps against European companies working in settlements; punitive measures against Palestinians over ‘negative measures.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}