Fidias among MEPs to demand EU end trade with Israeli settlements

Fidias Panayiotou was on Tuesday one of more than 100 members of the European Parliament who signed a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen demanding that the European Union cease all trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank. “We urge you to finally bring forward a legislative proposal to ban EU trade with Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied territories,” the letter read, before criticising that while the United Kingdom and Canada have already passed laws to this end, the EU has not. It said that the EU has “long claimed a leadership role in the region, as one of the key backers of the two-state solution”, but that the UK and Canada have “committed to act in support of this goal by banning trade with settlements”. “Within the EU, France has now committed to doing the same, joining other member states that have already adopted or are moving to adopt national trade bans,” it said, before adding that as such, “joint and consistent EU action is therefore needed”. It pointed out that French President Emmanuel Macron and British and Canadian Prime Ministers Andy Burnham and Mark Carney had written that “a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is critical for peace, sustainability, and security in the Middle East and beyond”. On this front, it pointed out that the trio had also jointly declared that “It is a fundamental interest for Canada, France, and the UK to protect and secure this outcome”. “The same goes for the European Union, which must now stand together with its key allies committed to international rule of law. The urgency of action has only grown since the Israeli government published a tender for the E1 settlement on August 18, breaching a long-standing EU red line,” it said. Smotrich said E1 settlement will ‘bury the idea of a Palestinian state’ The planned “E1” settlement is an area of land between eastern Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, which is located on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, and from whence Bedouin tribes were expelled following the six-day war of 1967. Were it to be built, there would be a continuous block of Israeli housing from Jerusalem to the River Jordan, effectively splitting the West Bank into two and making the existence of a contiguous Palestinian state impossible without forcing the displacement of Israelis. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the move will “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”. The letter stated that Article 3 of the Treaty of the European Union, better known as the Lisbon Treaty, “requires the observance of international law in the EU’s external action”, and said that as such, “the commission must propose an appropriate measure without further delay”. “Partial measures, such as raising tariffs or enhancing the current differentiation policy, do not meet the obligations laid out by the International Court of Justice and would extend the EU’s non-compliance with international law,” it said. UK speaks of ‘moral emergency’, Herzog says UK on ‘wrong side of history’ The British government last week described the matter as a “moral emergency” and said it will now “ban imports of goods from illegal settlements and go after individuals and companies that support, facilitate or profit from illegal settlement activity”. Burnham said of the issue that “the suffering of the Palestinian people is a scar on the conscience of the world”, and that “innocent Palestinians, including children, continue to be killed in Gaza, and there is still a humanitarian crisis, with far too little aid getting in”. Israeli President Isaac Herzog described the UK government’s move as “a grave miscalculation, a gross interference in the democratic elections of a sovereign nation, and a decision that will fall on the wrong side of history”.