EU blasts Israel over discriminatory bills against Palestinians

The EU issued a document on Tuesday, denouncing a spate of “potentially discriminatory or even anti-democratic bills” tabled in the Knesset (parliament).

The EU made the words in an annual document summarizing the political and economic situation in Israel as part of the EU’s review of its partnership with other nations, known as the European Neighborhood Policy.

According to the report, Israeli forces recently stepped up interventions in settlement violence, and the overwhelming majority of cases filed with the Israel police against such attacks were closed without indictment.

In addition, the report found “media freedom, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly remained problematic in the occupied Palestinian territory in 2011.”

It also said Palestinian economic and social rights remained “hampered by Israeli restrictions on the freedom of movement.”
Furthermore, the report said that “progress on the situation of the Arab minority was limited.”

Women’s rights in Israel “have become the subject of increasing debate as a result of a more aggressive attitude on the part of the ultra-Orthodox groups,” the report added.

The Arabs in Israel are the remainder, or descendants, of Palestinians who did not leave their land after the so-called “Israeli Declaration of Independence” in 1948, known among Palestinians as Yawm al-Nakbah, or day of catastrophe.

In 1948, the Tel Aviv regime forced 760,000 Palestinians out of their homeland to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, neighboring Arab states as well as to many other countries in the world, and hundreds of Palestinian villages were depopulated and destroyed.

On Monday, the EU warned that the Israeli settlement construction, considered illegal under international law, has been threatening to “make a two-state solution impossible.”

The EU council also condemned evictions and the demolition of Palestinian homes in annexed East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

''Settlements remain illegal under international law, irrespective of recent decisions by the government of Israel,'' the EU council said.

Noting the ''worsening living conditions of the Palestinian population,'' the EU also condemned Israel's plans for the forced transfer of Bedouin communities in the West Bank.

It expressed ''deep concern regarding settler extremism and incitement by settlers in the West Bank,'' condemning the continuous settler violence and deliberate provocations against Palestinian civilians and calling on Israel to bring the perpetrators to justice and to comply with its obligations under international law.

In addition, the EU ministers urged Tel Aviv to simplify the granting of building permits to Palestinians in the West Bank.

Palestinians and the international community have repeatedly censured Israel's settlement activities in the occupied territories, calling it the main obstacle to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.