EU's Hostile Fixation on Israeli Settlements

European Union foreign ministers have agreed to list the military wing of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.

The move required the agreement of all 28 of the EU's member states.

It makes it illegal for Hezbollah sympathisers in Europe to send the group money, and enables the freezing of the group's assets there.

In a statement, Hezbollah said the EU decision "was written by American hands with Israeli ink".

The group said the move "has no justification and is not based on any proof".

Some EU member states had been wary of the measure, saying it could further destabilise the situation in Lebanon.

The BBC's Chris Morris in Brussels says some states had also argued it would be difficult to distinguish fully between the group's military and political wings.

Given the magnitude of on-the-ground developments in which it is involved, the EU's move to blacklist Hezbollah as a terrorist group will likely be shrugged off by the militant movement as part of the Israeli-backed conspiracy against "resistance" that it sees behind much of what is happening in the region.

In practical terms, it would be more of a political slap on the wrist than a stunning body-blow. Hezbollah is not known to have substantial identifiable assets in EU countries which could be frozen, and it does not depend on donations from supporters there.

Hezbollah is the most powerful military force in Lebanon but also the dominant behind-the-scenes political mover. Diplomats may find it hard to differentiate between its military and political wings.

It's ironic that Hezbollah's open involvement alongside regime forces in the Syrian conflict may have helped harden EU opinion against it. One of its main stated reasons for doing so is the need to combat extremist Sunni Salafi rebels such as the Nusra Front, which has also been designated a terrorist group by the US and others.

The US, which has blacklisted Hezbollah for many years, welcomed the EU move.

"A growing number of governments are recognising Hezbollah as the dangerous and destabilising terrorist organisation that it is," said US Secretary of State John Kerry.

At the same time as stopping funding for illegal settlements, the EU has also blacklisted Hezbollah, something Advocate deliberately ignores. He wouldn't want anyone to accuse him of being even handed.

The question is not "Is Israel the same as South Africa?"
It is "do Israel's actions meet the international definition of what apartheid is?"

Finance Minister Yair Lapid said: "This decision is another in a long line of decisions that isolate Israel. Time is not in out favor, and every day that Israel does not engage in peace talks is a day in which our international status sustains more damage."

Labor Chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich also responded to the EU's decision to ban agreements with Israel which include settlements, saying that "the increasing diplomatic isolation is causing harm to the country and the market, and poses a strategic threat no less severe than the one posed by the sophisticated weapons aimed at us.

On the other hand, if you whine it will give me something to make fun of. So maybe you could whine a little bit: just enough for a bit of sport, but not enough so that you actually become tedious.

You might have misread:

the quoted source is from Israel, it deals about Israeli politicians' whining.

So?

It's nice that you care about whining in Israel. They certainly will appreciate it!

You have asked me and I responded to your single word question. ButI admit that "So?" might lead to several possible answers!

The European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP), the largest European coalition of organisations in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom and justice, welcomes the new guidelines published by the EU. After years of merely criticizing the Israeli government over its numerous violations of international law, the EU has finally taken concrete action by setting out guidelines which state that EU funding, grants and loans can no longer be used to finance Israeli entities or activities in areas occupied by Israel in 1967.

The new guidelines recall the conclusions of the European Foreign Affairs Council of December 2012, specifying that ”all agreements between the State of Israel and the European Union must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, namely the Golan Heights, the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip”.

The guidelines are to come into effect on 1 January 2014, after which time all companies, institutions or foundations based in Israeli settlements will be excluded from eligibility for EU grants, scholarships, prizes and financial loans. The guidelines are based on a decision adopted in December 2012 by the European Council and former EU declarations which reaffirm that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. This therefore constitutes a first step towards the implementation of EU non-recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights.

Israeli settlement policy is illegal under international law. Settlements presently house more than 520,000 Jewish Israeli citizens, more than 28,000 Palestinian homes and structures have been demolished, in excess of 180,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homeland and their land has been confiscated for exclusive use by Jewish Israeli’s – all of which constitute a gross violation of the 4th Geneva Convention. The displacement of the Palestinian people, along with Israel’s system of checkpoints, closures, permit system for travel – including between the West Bank and East Jerusalem, all have a serious economical, humanitarian and psychological impact on the Palestinian population and prevent them from developing their own economy. Therefore Israel`s ongoing occupation and colonisation policy is one of the main obstacles to achieving a just and sustainable peace.

ECCP welcomes the publication of the EU guidelines, despite intense Israeli and US pressure to postpone it, as a positive first step.

ECCP therefore calls upon the EU to:

- Assure full implementation of the guidelines and work towards the adoption of similar measures by all EU member states.

- Adopt binding instruments to effectively ban any product manufactured, grown or packed in Israeli settlements from the EU market.

- End all research funding of Israeli military companies (which among other crimes ‘field test’ their deadly systems on Palestinian civilians).

Binding, comprehensive and fully implemented legislation, together with true political will from the European authorities and EU member states, is needed to ensure that EU governments and their respective companies refrain from ongoing complicity in Israel’s illegal system of apartheid and injustice against the Palestinian people.

The Palestinian people are semitic, Oralboy described them as 'vermin,' so that makes him the biggest anti-Semite of them all.

As well as racist, inbred, simplistic, reactionary and a compulsive liar, although the only person stupid enough to believe his lies is Oralboy himself.

He believes a god gave all of Palestine to the Jews and they should kick the indigenous population out as the land which belonged to the Israelites 2000 years ago, still belong to the Jews today. The reasoning process escapes the poster who doesn't seem to comprehend, for instance, that the Jews are unable to produce a deed to said land, Palestine.

As well as racist, inbred, simplistic, reactionary and a compulsive liar, although the only person stupid enough to believe his lies is Oralboy himself.

I have found Oralloy's views regarding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict to be antithetical to mine and most commonsense folks.

He believes a god gave all of Palestine to the Jews

they should kick the indigenous population out as the land which belonged to the Israelites 2000 years ago, still belong to the Jews today.

Nor does Oralloy appreciate the reality that Palestine has changed rulers many times over with most other rulers reigning far longer than the Israelites who only ruled for 600 years out of the 5,000 years of recorded history.

And where did you say you lived, MiT?

Indeed, Palestinians are just as much a semitic people as are Jews; however, in the vernacularism of the day, when one is referring to anti-Semitism, it is generally understood and accepted as directed primarily towards Jews.

Nonsense. I know a billion times more about the history of the region than you do, and you know it.

Izzythepush is too stupid to come up with any real attack against me, so all the little freak is capable of doing is describing himself and then making an empty claim that "I'm just like him".

Sorry, little IzzyTard, but I'm not like you at all.

You don't seem to even know enough about the English language