Hypocritical Euro Judeophobes Strike Israel Again

Israel has many friends in Europe, but they are not making policy for that monstruous, undemocratic and anti-democratic institution, the European Union, loathed by many of its own people, by perhaps a majority of those in countries where the insane Euro currency has been installed. This currency, a bad idea whose time had come, has caused economic suffering in countries like Italy, Greece, France, Portugal and Spain, in some cases ruining the local economy.

Back to Europe's traditional hatred of Jews. Judeophobic European elites have found a clever, exceedingly hypocritical way to continue to justify hating Jews after the Holocaust and to justify murderous attacks against them. They invented the never existent "palestinian people" presented as innocent of any prior offense against Jews and also presented as indigenous  to what Westerners choose to now call "palestine." However, the Romans who founded European civilization such as it is, called the country Judea --IVDAEA in proper Latin writing. The words Jew and Juif and Jude and judio etc derive from that name Judea.

The EU is now out of the closet of its Jew hatred. It is quite open now. The EU is imposing a trade sanction on Israel because Israel is supposedly occupying territory belonging to "Palestinians," this previously non-existent people [up till 1964 when the PLO was founded.] This group of Arabs live or formerly lived in the Land of Israel [called Judea by the Romans, you recall]. But occupying territory does not really bother the EU as a whole. After all, one of the smaller and less influential EU members, Cyprus, is suffering the occupation of about 38% of its land  mass by Turkey, which Turkey calls the The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

This occupation of part of an EU member state does not much bother the true blue Euros. If it did they would vociferously denounce this occupation and send enraged Scandinavian morality enforcers to tell the Turks that they are doing wrong things. Of course Cyprus and Greece make noise about the occupation of northern Cyprus from time to time. But the bulk of the EU could not care less. Indeed, the EU provides funds for northern Cyprus for the benefit of the Turkish Cypriots who collaborate and support the Turkish occupation and have taken over homes and lands formerly inhabited by Greek Cypriots. Likewise, the EU collaborates with the occupation of western Sahara by Morocco [& here & here & here].

Here are excerpts from an opinion column by Prof Avi Bell on the subject of this latest EU anti-Jewish attack:

At long last, the European Commission has published its long-threatened Interpretive Notice on labeling Israeli “settlement” products. Until its publication on November 11, Israeli sources had feared the anticipated Notice would impose trade sanctions and illegally discriminate against the Jewish state, but the Europeans jealously guarded the Notice’s secrecy.

The Notice is now out, and Israel’s worst fears have been realized. It does impose a form of trade sanction against the Jewish state—one that violates international law and discriminates against the Jewish state. It is also badly reasoned and badly drafted, and drips with condescension and contempt for Israel.

The Notice says that when products from the Golan Heights, “East” Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza are sold in Europe, they must not be labeled as “products of Israel” because the EU believes that these areas are not sovereign parts of Israel under international law and, therefore, consumers would be misled if they were labeled “products of Israel.” However, the Notice states that it would be lawful to label products from the West Bank and Gaza as “products of Palestine” (and maybe from “East” Jerusalem as well, though the Notice is ambiguous on this point) even though the EU does not recognize the sovereignty of a state of Palestine. This is because presumably European consumers only care that product labels reflect EU views of sovereignty under international law when this works to the disadvantage of Israel.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Notice presents its position on the borders between Israel and a future state of Palestine as those of “international law” as if the EU had the authority under international law to establish Israeli-Palestinian borders. In fact, not only does the EU lack this authority under international law, the EU is signed as a witness on Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements that state that the borders are to be established only by agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Similarly, the Notice claims that the EU “will not recognise any changes to pre-1967 borders, other than those agreed by the parties to the Middle East Peace Process” even though there were no pre-1967 Israeli-Palestinian borders. In fact, by trying to establish the pre-1967 Israel-Jordan and Israel-Egypt armistice lines as the new Israeli-Palestinian borders, the EU is trying to force changes to the pre-1967 borders contrary to the agreement of the parties to the peace process. Ironically, the EU is trying to rewrite history as well, since there is no country in the EU that viewed the armistice lines as borders pre-1967.

. . . . . .   . . . . .

There is an important conclusion to draw from the European Notice.

Until it is forced to stop, the European Union will continue to violate international law as it concerns Israel. The European Notice is a clear violation of international trade law (for more analysis, see a report authored by Eugene Kontorovich and me). And this is not the only way the EU or European states violate international law to harm Israel. European states have long ignored their legal duties to combat terrorism under treaties like the International Convention to Suppress the Financing of Terrorism and Security Council resolutions like Resolution 1373 when it comes to terrorist organizations that target Israeli and other Jews. Most European states continue to contribute to the second-class treatment of the Jewish state in the UN system, in violation of article 2(1) of the UN Charter. More generally, the EU and European states have devoted enormous efforts to creating double standards under cover of international law that are uniquely harsh to the Jewish state.

Read it all here.

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see this excerpt from a paper by Profs Eugene Kontorovich and Avi Bell:

DRAFT FOR PRESENTATION AT

 ISRAELI ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2015

-         NOT FOR CITATION  -

THE EU’S DIFFERENTIATION OF ISRAEL FROM OTHER COUNTRIES IN TRADE AGREEMENTS[1]

Avi Bell & Eugene Kontorovich

Introduction

A series of recent and pending European Union decisions have led some to suggest the EU is developing a policy of “differentiation” between Israel and the territories that came under its control under 1967.[2] However, the EU’s actions must be seen in a broader perspective, which includes its treaty and trade relations with other countries that it regards as occupying territory, such as Morocco, Turkey, Armenia, and Russia.[3] As the same time that the EU has been “differentiating” Israeli settlements, it has failed to pursue “differentiation” anywhere else, and in some places even pursued the diametrically opposite policy, which we might call “homogenization.” Thus the EU’s “differentiation” of Israel may properly refer to differentiating its treatment of Israel from other relevant contexts.

            This paper will examine the differences in the EU’s treatment of Israel from other situations involving claims of occupation and illegal settlement.[4] It will then consider the implications of such differences under international trade law, which broadly discourages discriminatory measures.

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[1] This conference paper draws heavily from Eugene Kontorovich Economic Dealings With Occupied Territories, 53 Col. J. Trans’ntl L. 584 (2015) and Avi Bell & Eugene Kontorovich, Challenging the EU’s Illegal Restrictions on Israeli Products in the World Trade Organization http://kohelet.org.il/en/All-Publications.aspx?id=122.

[2] Hugh Lovatt and Mattia Toaldo, EU Differentiation and Israeli settlements, EU Council on Foreign Relations Policy Brief, July 2015.

[3] For more background on EU practice up until 2010, see Guy Harpaz & Eyal Rubinson, The Interface between Trade, Law and Politics and the Erosion of Normative Power Europe: Comment on Brita, 35 European L. Rev. 551-571 (2010).

[4] The inconsistency between EU policy with regard the West Bank and Western Sahara has recently been noted in the EU’s own publications. See Pai Wrange, Occupation and Annexation of Territory: Respect for International humanitarian and human rights and consistent EU policy, Directorate for External Policy, Policy Department Study 44-45, 51 (2015).

Also see:

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/How-the-EU-directly-funds-settlements-in-occupied-territory-327329
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/what-the-eu-rules-are-about-and-what-they-are-not/

http://jtl.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/06/Kontorovich-Article_53-CJTL_584.pdf
https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/7-28-2015-Natl-Security-Hearing-on-BDS-Kontorovich-Northwestern-Testimony.pdf

https://danielmeyerowitzkatz.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/ignoring-history-the-west-bank-bds-and-the-eus-cyprus-experience/
http://antisemitism-europe.blogspot.co.il/2015/07/for-european-union-officials-israeli.html