Six Democratic European Countries Lie in Anti-Israel Declaration

In June this year, in response to Israel’s planned extension of sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, six European members of the UN Security Council released a joint statement calling for “Sustainable peace and stability in the Middle East.”

All countries have the right to have anti-Israel opinions and policies and express them publicly. But one would expect that democratic countries would be committed to the truth. Unfortunately, the joint statement by Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, and Norway, is a collection of hypocrisy, lies, and rewriting of history.

The six states claim to “condemn all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror.” There is no greater duplicity than to ‘condemn’ terror against civilians, while at the same time being the leading international funders of terror against Israeli civilians. This writer has personally met with government officials in Germany, Norway and many other European countries and presented full documentation proving that the Palestinian Authority has spent billions of euros to pay monthly salaries to terrorist prisoners, and to the families of the so-called Martyrs – including suicide bombers.

“According to the EU, the two-state solution, with Jerusalem as the future capital for both states, is the only way to ensure sustainable peace and stability in the region.”

They receive this money solely as a reward for their terrorism and murder of Israelis. These ‘terror reward’ payments could not continue if European countries would condition their funding on the cessation of the PA’s terror payments. The deceitful condemnation of the terror that they are knowingly facilitating, shows that the lives of Israeli civilians don’t have the same value to Europeans as other civilians. Indeed, by condemning terror against civilians they are fundamentally condemning themselves.

The joint statement hypocritically calls “on both sides to abstain from any unilateral actions which would be contrary to international law.” Yet both the EU and Norway are intentionally and knowingly taking ‘unilateral’ actions that ‘violate international law.’ According to the Oslo Accords, which are binding under international law, Area C of the West Bank is under complete Israeli jurisdiction and administration. Any act of building in these areas without an Israeli permit is a violation of international law. Yet the EU and Norway, as policy, unilaterally violate international law by building for the PA in a deceitful attempt to bypass the peace process. Hypocritically again, their joint statement asks that “meaningful negotiations on all final status issues resume.” Of course the status of Area C is something that must be negotiated. Yet the EU and Norway feel others must follow the law, while they themselves are free to do what they want.

The joint statement further states that “we will not accept any changes to the 1967 borders.” But no ‘borders’ were established in 1967; there were only 1949 armistice lines, which have never constituted established borders.

Finally, the joint declaration states: “The two-state solution, with Jerusalem as the future capital for both states, is the only way to ensure sustainable peace and stability in the region.”

In fact, there is no greater way to ensure war and instability in the region than to force Israel back to those 1949 indefensible armistice lines, which would forever be an invitation for Palestinian terror. Were the thousands of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip to be fired in the future from the West Bank into Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Israel’s airport, life in Israel would be untenable.

“There is no greater way to ensure war and instability in the region than to force Israel back to those 1949 indefensible armistice lines”

Israel must follow UN resolution 242, which (under certain conditions) calls for Israeli withdrawal – not to the cease-fire lines but to ‘secure and recognised’ borders. With nearly 2000 Israelis murdered and tens of thousands injured since Israel started withdrawing from the West Bank after signing the Oslo Accords, it is clear that Israel has already withdrawn beyond secure borders.

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