EU diplomats call for visa-bans on violent Israeli settlers and officials
Senior diplomats have urged EU countries to consider implementing visa-bans on violent Israeli settlers and obstructive officials, as the ongoing occupation continues to make Palestinian lives ever more difficult. The diplomats, who are based in Jerusalem and Ramallah, have called for EU countries to take measures against “known violent settlers and those calling for acts of violence”. They have also called for “reciprocity” against “Israeli discriminatory visa practices restricting freedom of movement of EU citizens”. The call comes after a year of settler violence, including vandalism of Christian churches and cemeteries, as well as anti-Palestinian attacks. Israeli security forces killed six Palestinians and injured 785 last year, amid what the EU report called “excessive use of force” and “extensive use of live ammunition”.
Settlement “ring” threatens two-state solution
According to the EU report, Israel authorised 7,000 new housing units in the past year, building a “settlement ring” around Jerusalem that will isolate it from the West Bank, making the EU and UN-backed two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict impossible. The report describes a right-wing Israeli government that cares less and less about its international reputation and paints a disturbing picture of life for ordinary Palestinians, including the building of a massive cable-car system through the heart of the holy city that will connect Israelis in West Jerusalem with those in East Jerusalem over the heads of Palestinian slums. In December, Palestinian human-rights lawyer Salah Hamouri was stripped of his citizenship and deported to France.
Figures reveal extent of deprivation
The EU ambassadors’ report includes 24 pages of disturbing figures regarding life for Palestinians. Just 15% of Jerusalem’s budget is spent on Palestinians, who make up almost 40% of the city’s population. Some 86% of Palestinian children live below the poverty line, and one in 10 is likely to drop out of school, compared to just one in 100 in West Jerusalem. Just 26% of Palestinian women have jobs, compared to 82% of Israeli women. Some 144,000 Palestinians live under the threat of Israeli bulldozers because Jerusalem authorities have deemed their homes to have been illegally built.
Calls for EU unity
Whilst the call for Israeli visa-bans is a long way from becoming policy, the report gives an unvarnished version of events that will form the framework for future EU discussions. The ambassadors’ call for a strong “common message” on the conflict has not been signed by all EU countries, with some, including Latvia and Luxembourg, lacking missions in Jerusalem. The Czech Republic and Hungary did not sign the report because they routinely go against EU criticism of Israel, blunting European diplomacy. The ambassadors also called for Israel to “open investigations after each [Palestinian] fatality”, but said nothing about the independence of enquiries, despite the fact that most Israeli armed-forces probes go nowhere.
