Palestine – European Union Must End PLO Subjugation And Exploitation

June 2, 2016 by David Singer
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The European Union (EU) possesses the financial levers to end 10 years of exploitative rule by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in not holding any elections in the West Bank during that period.95% of the West Bank Arab population live in Areas “A” and “B” under the total administrative control of the PLO. That population has been subjugated into silence by the PLO and given no opportunity to freely express their support or otherwise for the political and economic decisions taken by the PLO since 2006.

The EU in February 2015 released €130 million in direct financial support to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and a further €82 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, commented at the time:

“The EU remains committed to the two-state solution and will therefore continue to support the Palestinian Authority in its state-building efforts and in delivering basic social services.”

Hahn’s statement ignored that the PA had:

  1. frustrated state-building efforts to bring about the two-state solution during the previous twelve months by refusing to resume negotiations with Israel without preconditions.
  2. ceased to exist as a legal entity after President Abbas had disbanded it by Presidential decree on 3 January 2013.

The stated purpose of EU funding – introduced in 2008 – included sustaining the now-defunct PA

“in its effort to pursue the fundamental values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.” 

The PLO spurns these values:

  1. continuing to declare international law – the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter – null and void and
  2. denying its own citizens the right to free speech and free elections.

Yet despite another 12 months of no negotiations with Israel – the EU directly channelled another €170.5 million to the PA on 1 March 2016 and €82 million to UNRWA.

High Representative/ Vice-President – Federica Mogherini – said:

“The European Union renews its concrete commitment to the Palestinians. Through this package, the EU supports the daily lives of Palestinians in the fields of education and health, protecting the poorest families and also providing the Palestinian refugees with access to essential services. These are tangible steps on the ground that can improve the lives of Palestinian people. But these steps are not enough; Palestinian institutions must continue to grow stronger, become more transparent, more accountable and more democratic. Viable and inclusive institutions, based on respect for the rule of law and human rights, are crucial in view of the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian State. Because what we want to achieve is the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian State living side by side, in peace and security, with the State of Israel and other neighbours.”

Again we hear the same pious platitudes of democracy, respect for the rule of law and human rights uttered by the EU – but ignored by the PLO.

Surely it is time for the EU to demand that President Abbas:

  1. Resign his office as President – an office he clings to seven years after his four-year term expired – to end growing public perceptions of corruption now held by 81% of the population and curb his escalating autocratic tendencies
  2. Hold EU-supervised elections in the West Bank for the first time since 2006
  3. End the radicalisation and Jew-hatred being taught in UNRWA schools beginning in Grade 1
  4. Resume direct negotiations with Israel without preconditions

How long is the EU going to keep shelling out large sums of money – only to see the implementation of its noble objectives being continually subverted?

David Singer is a Sydney Lawyer and Foundation Member of the International Analysts Network

Comments

10 Responses to “Palestine – European Union Must End PLO Subjugation And Exploitation”
  1. Gillian Miller says:

    Note the lack of interest in the illegal occupation of Cyprus, Kashmir and Tibet. Note the real truth that the West Bank was allocated to Israel in 1920 but that, at the Oslo Accord, Israel suggested that part of the land would go to a new Palestinian state. The UN and the EU now recognise Israeli land as Palestinian (which it isn’t) and builds on it for Palestinians. Palestinians are a fake race that did not truly come into existence until the Six Day War.

    Why is such a tiny piece of land, legally given to the Jews back in 1920, not allowed to be lived on by them? In fact, TransJordan, now Jordan which is ruled by a Saudi prince, was part of Israel. This same king stated up to the 1967 War that it was Palestine. So why aren’t Palestinians allowed to live there in equality?

    This is all due to rabid anti-Semitism and it is time that it was acknowledged as such.

  2. Leon Poddebsky says:

    David,

    Daniel Pipes recently pointed out that at the same time that certain Arab states are improving their posture towards Israel, Europe, whose dominant socio- political culture is currently what is known as “leftist,” is becoming more virulently anti-Jewish.

    I know that the following is a sweeping statement, but there is more than a trace of truth in it: Europe (especially Western and Central Europe) hates Jews much more than it pretends to “love” the Arabs of The Land of Israel.
    A similar trend is developing in the USA.

  3. danny kidron says:

    When suggesting what the EU should and shouldn’t do with the muslim arabs occupying Shomron and Yehuda, you ignore two essential elements: due to its very culture, no matter what the EU or anyone else does, nothing will change the behavior of the muslim arabs towards the Jews; due to its anti-Semitism infused culture, the EU’s actions towards the muslim arabs and the Jewish Israelis will not change – “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.

    They never learn.

    • david singer says:

      Danny

      Peace treaties signed by Israel with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994 show that the behaviour of muslim arabs towards the Jews can change.

      Problem with the West Bank and Gazan Arabs is they have been ruled for decades by Hamas and the PLO – both of whose raison d’etre is the belief that one day they will drive the Jews into the sea.

      Elections could hopefully find new rulers with perceptions similar to those Arab leaders in Egypt and Jordan who made peace with Israel possible.

      If the people plump for the same leaders then at least they cannot complain about what happens next.

  4. Leon Poddebsky says:

    The EU will continue to do it indefinitely.
    Their objective is to keep the pot boiling until Israel capitulates to maximalist Arab demands.
    Those demands are that Israel consent to its staged extinction / suicide.

    • david singer says:

      Leon

      The EU should cut its losses pursuing a policy which has no possible chance of success.

      The funds the EU pays out to the PLO would be better spent on the millions of Moslem refugees presently flooding into EU territory.

      Go figure…

      • Leon Poddebsky says:

        David,

        Certainly, but what can we deduce from the EU’s [ especially its so-called “left”‘s] skewed priorities and its supposed commitment to humanitarianism?

        • David Singer says:

          For me to analyse …

          … For you to deduce

          • Leon Poddebsky says:

            David,

            I pre-empted (above): my deduction is that large parts of European society hate Jews more than they pretend to love Arabs of The Land of Israel.

            • David Singer says:

              Leon

              Many will no doubt draw the same conclusion – but you need some concrete facts to support your claim.

              What is factual is that the European Union has pursued the following policy since the 1980 Venice Declaration:

              “The nine stress the need for Israel to put an end to the territorial occupation which it has maintained since the conflict of 1967, as it has done for part of Sinai. They are deeply convinced that the Israeli settlements constitute a serious obstacle to the peace process in the Middle East. The nine consider that these settlements, as well as modifications in population and property in the occupied Arab territories, are illegal under international law.”

              Their policy was misconceived in law – the EU never considering that Jews have the legal right to settle in the misnamed “occupied Arab territories” pursuant to the rights granted to the Jewish people under article 6 of the Mandate of Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter.

              The “occupied Arab territories” are in fact “territories within which Jews have the legal right to settle and from which they were driven out in 1948”

              Their policy has therefore been framed on very shaky and unsupportable foundations from the start.

              Even worse they have maintained that policy for 36 years at great financial and political cost to themselves as they pour money down the drain into the welcoming coffers of the PLO and Hamas – giving continuing political support to two organisations whose stated aim is to wipe Israel off the map.

              You apparently see this policy as anti- Semitic.

              Based dispassionately on the above facts I would classify this long running policy as flawed at its foundations from the beginning and destined to not have any chance of being achieved.

              Now we see the EU in desperation building illegally in Area C of the West Bank. Great example of respect for the law by the EU. The EU just goes from bad to worse in acting as it is.

              The EU needs to have another rethink and redraft an outmoded and outdated 1980 policy that has no relevance in 2016 with the region in complete turmoil and millions of its citizens illegally fleeing to the EU seeking asylum.

              Maybe it has something to do with Jew-hatred. It certainly has a lot to do with incompetence and ineptitude that sees the EU on its knees in pursuing a policy that could never resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict – only give political succour and financial aid to those who wanted only one outcome – Israel’s disappearance from the map.

              The EU has been suckered. When will they wake up?

              My article offers the answer – do so right now.

              The sooner the EU takes steps to reverse its policy – the sooner some hope of movement in ending the conflict can occur.

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