The European Union has just been exposed when a plan to remove Jews from their ancestral home was discovered. The goal was to move Palestinians into “Area C”, as designated by the Oslo Accords, an area that houses 400,000 Israeli citizens and has had Jewish roots dating back to the days of Abraham.
The Oslo Accords have been lost to historical memory, as they were a massive failure almost immediately and led to no peace in the region. The First Intifada began in 1987 until the signing of Oslo I. Hundreds of Israelis were killed and injured in the terrorist attacks by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) under the direction of Yaasar Arafat. Even more Palestinians were killed in retaliation by Israeli forces. In 1994, an agreement was made in which there would be three sections of Judea and Samaria, a.k.a. The West Bank. Area A would be under control of a new Palestinian government, called the Palestinian Authority, Area C would be under the control of Israel. Area B was under Palestinian civil control and Israeli military control.
These Areas were needed because Israel required security from future terrorist attacks, but that failed. In the decade following the signing of the “peace” deal, more terrorists attacks occurred than the decade prior. Nearly 300 Israelis were killed by terrorists. In 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and President Bill Clinton tried to save the deal. Barak made an offer so good to Arafat that many Jews considered it treacherous. As per The Guardian
Halfway through the conference, apparently on July 18, Clinton had “slowly” – to avoid misunderstanding – read out to Arafat a document, endorsed in advance by Barak, outlining the main points of a future settlement. The proposals included the establishment of a demilitarised Palestinian state on some 92% of the West Bank and 100% of the Gaza Strip, with some territorial compensation for the Palestinians from pre-1967 Israeli territory; the dismantling of most of the settlements and the concentration of the bulk of the settlers inside the 8% of the West Bank to be annexed by Israel; the establishment of the Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem, in which some Arab neighborhoods would become sovereign Palestinian territory and others would enjoy “functional autonomy”; Palestinian sovereignty over half the Old City of Jerusalem (the Muslim and Christian quarters) and “custodianship,” though not sovereignty, over the Temple Mount; a return of refugees to the prospective Palestinian state though with no “right of return” to Israel proper; and the organisation by the international community of a massive aid programme to facilitate the refugees’ rehabilitation.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/23/israel3
Arafat turned down the deal, went home, and began the Second Intifada. Lasting from 2000 to 2005, the Second Intifada led to over 1,100 more Israeli deaths.
That is but a small context in which to view this latest attempt by Europe. While the Left has incredibly short memories, viewing Israeli dominance over the region as the way its always been, Israel thankfully has a longer memory. The EU rips into Israel for not abiding by Oslo with no context as to why Israel, and the PA, dismissed Oslo. Oslo was, in every way, a failure. There is no peace with a people who want you dead, there is only security. So the EU does what it always does, works with terrorists to excise the Jewish cancer from the Jewish State.
The EU tried to circumvent Oslo via a humanitarian loophole, claiming that they are going to construct facilities for “humanitarian” reasons, not political ones. As the Jerusalem Post stated, “the EU construction takes place in locations that are highly sensitive, precisely for the sole purpose of creating new facts on the ground and preparing the area for a Palestinian takeover without any final peace agreement.”
So the EU proposed construction of a school near a highway, in inhabitable environments, or on archeological grounds. The goal is obvious, plan construction in areas where Israel would have to object, thus making Israel the bad guys and furthering the lie that Israel is an apartheid state. Then you have front groups like Amnesty International write another “report”, which in turn is more fodder for the Left.
The tragic part about all of this is that the areas under Palestinian control are failing, the people are dying, the poverty rate is over 36%, and the EU doesn’t care. There is no intervention in those areas, because that would admit that of the top ten issues facing the Palestinian people, Israel doesn’t make the cut.
The Knesset is not taking this lying down. In a letter signed by 40 Knesset members, a third of the parliamentary body, the EU was taken to task for leaving, “no room for doubt as to the one-sidedness and animosity of the EU towards the State of Israel and the Jewish people” and “completely ignores our people’s historical affinity to our homeland and completely ignores the status of the State of Israel in Area C.” The letter goes on:
Sadly, the document revealed yesterday exposes only the tip of the iceberg of the EU’s activities to undermine the State of Israel. We have not lost sight of your ongoing and continuous contribution, both direct and indirect, to campaignsdesigned to tarnish Israel’s name, from blood libels regarding alleged violence on the part of settlers, through unfounded accusations that Israel deliberately harms children, to specious comparisons of the policies of the government of the State of Israel to those of the Apartheid regime in South Africa of yesteryear.
We were apparently mistaken in thinking that racist, religious hatred of Jews and Israel was a thing of the past. It saddens us to discover time and time again that under the thin veneer of the EU’s civility and manners and the seeming concern for human rights, the same old blood libels can be found, along with the same flames of primitive hatred that seek this time to persecute – not the individual Jew, but the tiny Jewish state.
The letter does not slow down, demanding an end to this aggressive posture by Europe. But it will not be the end. The European Union has caved to the far left ideology that looks at a conflict and decides who is the victim and the aggressor based on no context, data or sense of history. Their black and white thinking will force them to attempt another method to get rid of the Jewish presence in Israel. It’s only a matter of time.
