SWEDEN PUSHES EU TO BACK PALARAB STATE AND DIVIDE JERUSALEM

Posted By on December 2nd, 2009

Anti-Israeli Swedish government pushes EU towards backing unilateral declaration of Palestinian state and division of Jerusalem
http://www.robinshepherdonline.com/anti-israeli-swedish-government-pushes-eu-towards-backing-unilateral-declaration-of-palestinian-state-and-division-of-jerusalem/#more-1768
Sweden, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, is pushing the EU to make an official statement next week backing both a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood and also the division of Jerusalem, a draft resolution obtained exclusively by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper shows.

EU foreign ministers may now make a declaration along such lines at a meeting on December 7. It would be the first significant foreign policy initiative following the creation of a de facto EU foreign ministry under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty which came into effect today.

Israel is still reeling from the refusal of the Swedish government to distance itself from a report during the summer by the country’s top selling newspaper, Aftonbladet, which alleged an international Jewish conspiracy in which the Israel Defence Forces were said to be harvesting the bodily organs of Palestinian children for sale on the black market. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt was, however, among the first to condemn Switzerland for its decision on Sunday to ban the construction of Muslim minarets which he described as “an expression of quite a bit of prejudice and maybe even fear”, adding that it was “a negative signal in every way.”

Such shameless hypocrisy is par for the course in Sweden. But the country’s position at the helm of the EU now offers it the prospect of meddling in the Middle East peace process in a manner which blatantly takes sides against Israel.

Haaretz quoted the Swedish draft as calling for “an independent, democratic, contiguous and viable state of Palestine, comprising the West Bank and Gaza and with East Jerusalem as its capital.” Adopting the usual code for criticism of Israeli settlement policy it asks “all parties to refrain from provocative actions” and adamantly states that the EU Council “has never recognized the annexation of East Jerusalem. If there is to be a genuine peace, a way must be found to resolve the status of Jerusalem as capital of two states. The Council calls for the reopening of Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem in accordance with the road map. It also calls on the Israeli government to cease all discriminatory treatment of Palestinians in East Jerusalem.”

Haaretz further reports:

“The document deals only briefly with Israel’s announcement of a 10-month moratorium on construction in settlements across the West Bank: “The Council takes note of the recent decision of the government of Israel on a partial and temporary [] freeze and expresses the hope that it will become a step towards resuming meaningful negotiations.” Israel’s removal of checkpoints also receives only cursory mention: “Many checkpoints and roadblocks remain in place to protect settlements.”‘

And, the paper continues:

“On the issue of borders, the document states that the EU will not accept any changes made by Israel to the 1967 borders unless they have PA approval. The EU, it says, welcomes PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s proposal of a unilateral declaration of statehood and would “be able, at the appropriate time, to recognize a Palestinian state.”‘

Israel has, understandably reacted with dismay to the news, rightly saying that any such move would harm the EU’s ability to be taken seriously as a mediator in the peace process.

The Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement:

“After the important steps taken by the government of Israel to enable the resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians, the European Union must now exert pressure on the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table. Steps like those being led by Sweden only contribute to the opposite effect.”

Frankly, the Israelis would have every right to be much tougher. If the EU proceeds with such a one-sided resolution — which both rewards terrorism and seeks to preclude a democratically elected government in Israel from negotiating freely about the status of its own capital city — I see no reason why the EU should be invited to play any further role in the peace process.

Clearly, that is a matter for Israel and Israel alone. But if the anti-Israeli hysteria which is now such a feature of bien pensant discourse in Europe is to be allowed to feed into formal EU declarations, the EU will have no-one to blame but itself if it finds itself standing on the margins when the real discussions about the future of the Middle East take place.

Categorized under: BOOKS.
Tagged with: no tags.

Comments are closed.