Palestine Think Tank

The European Union is considering upgrading its relationship with Israel, including in the political and economic spheres, and the European Council will take a decision on these matter in its June 16th meeting.

Salam Fayad wrote the EU a letter of protest which is worth noting:

Palestinian National Authority

Prime Minister's Office

27 May 2008

Re: Potential upgrade of EU-Israel relations

Your Excellency,

It has come to my attention that the European Union is contemplating upgrading its relationship with Israel, including in the political and economic spheres, and that the Council may take a decision on this matter in its June 16th meeting.

I am writing you to register my deep reservations concerning such an upgrade while Israel continues to systematically violate Palestinian human rights and flaunt its international obligations, including certain of its commitments to the EU.

Our understanding is that one of the principal rationales for the EU to extend political and economic co-operation to neighbouring third states under the European Neighbourhood Policy is to generate incentives for those third states to respect EU values, central among them human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Yet, what we fear may happen in the case of Israel is a decoupling of the incentive (i.e., economic integration) from the desired behaviour (i.e., respect for human rights).

In the months since Annapolis, we have continued to see a flagrant disregard on the part of Israel for Palestinian national and individual rights, in violation of international law and the Road Map. Construction has continued in at least 101 settlements (not incl. Jerusalem-area settlements). Similarly, Israeli authorities have issued tenders for 847 new housing units since Annapolis, as compared with 138 housing units tendered in the 11 months prior to Annapolis. Meanwhile, Israeli authorities demolished at least 185 Palestinian structures, including 85 residential structures, in the first four months after Annapolis. The number of checkpoints, roadblocks and other physical barriers to movement now exceeds 600. And, of course, Israel has yet to comply with the 2004 ruling of the International Court of Justice, which held that the settlements and the Wall that are built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) are illegal, and which requires Israel to stop constructing the Wall, remove those parts already built and provide reparations.

All this aside, despite its obligations under the Barcelona Process, Israel continues, through a myriad of restrictions, to hamper implementation of the Interim Association Agreement concluded between the EU and the PLO on behalf of the PNA. Moreover, Israel continues to breach its own Association Agreement and EU directives regarding settlement products by allowing these products to be exported to the EU as if they were manufactured and/or wholly obtained in Israel and to refund settlement businesses (through illegal subsidies) for any import taxes paid by these businesses in their export to the EU.

At Annapolis, we agreed, in accordance with the Road Map, that the United States, on behalf of the Quartet, would head a trilateral mechanism to monitor each party's performance of its Road Map obligations. We need to see that this mechanism is not a vacuous one and that it leads to concrete results.

Moreover, we are now at the halfway point between the resumption of permanent status negotiations at Annapolis and the end of 2008, by which time we are expected to reach an agreement to resolve all outstanding issues to end the decades-long conflict. The time is therefore most opportune for the EU to act on this matter.

If the EU were to upgrade its relationship with Israel at this juncture, in view of Israel's systematic breach of legal obligations and agreements, Palestinians could only view it as rewarding unlawful behaviour – and Israel could only interpret it to mean that such behaviour and EU calls to stop it, have no consequences. Furthermore, the EU would be depriving itself of an important tool to push the peace process in the right direction, and jeopardizing its ability to play the active political role this region needs and that we, Palestinians, expect and support.

Now is the time for the EU to convey to its friend, Israel, that the key to strengthening its ties with the EU is to demonstrate, by way of action, that it indeed shares and embraces the goals and values of Europeans.

Now is the time for the EU to demonstrate to its Palestinian friends and other friends in the region the seriousness with which it views the principled position it has taken in the peace process.

Now – more than ever – is the time for the EU to act on the principled position that it reaffirmed again today that Israeli settlement activity "anywhere in the [OPT], including East Jerusalem, is illegal" and "threatens the viability of an agreed two-state solution".

I should note further that we do not consider the resumption or indeed the upgrade of the EU's relations with the PNA as an appropriate substitute for principled action in the case of the EU's relations with Israel. The test, as we understand it, is not, and should not be, a relative one. We therefore urge the EU to uphold fair, consistent and objective standards in its dealings with all its neighbours.

I cannot overstate the need for accountability at this juncture. Whatever credibility and hope the peace process may have enjoyed at Annapolis is fast fading, as is the viability of an agreed two-state solution.

Therefore, I strongly urge the EU to decide against the upgrade of its relations with Israel until such time as Israel abides by international and human rights laws, including by freezing all settlement activity, and allows the Palestinian people to enjoy the same neighbourly relations with the EU as other nations in the region.

Please accept, your Excellency, the expression of my highest consideration.

Sincerely,

Salam Fayyad