The Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry today welcomed the European Union’s position rejecting Israel’s colonial settlement policy, yet it considered such a position in sufficient.
While welcoming the EU’s positions firmly rejecting all forms of Israel’s colonial settlement policy along with the associated actions of forced evictions, home demolitions and land confiscation, it stressed in a press statement that such positions are not sufficient and do not rise up to the level of violations and crimes perpetrated by the Israel occupation against the Palestinian people along with its territory, property and holy sites.
The Ministry called on the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, the UN Security Council and all countries, especially the EU Member States, to take the necessary practical measures and steps to force Israel, the occupying power, to halt all forms of colonial settlement and end its crimes against the Palestinian people.
As part of the above, the ministry urged the UN and the EU to ensure the implementation of UNSC Resolution 2334, and making the development of relations with Israel contingent upon Israel’s compliance with international law.
The ministry’s press statement came after EU spokesperson Peter Steno condemned the large-scale demolition of Hamsa al-Foqa community along with the destruction of EU-funded structures in the northern Jordan Valley.
Steno called on Israel to “halt demolitions and the need to facilitate humanitarian access to the affected communities” as he recalled the EU’s “firm opposition to Israel’s settlement policy and actions taken in that context, such as forced transfers, evictions, demolitions and confiscations of homes, which it sees as illegal under international law and as an impediment to a viable two-state solution.”
“The EU also reiterates its call on the government of Israel to halt all continued settlement expansion, including in East Jerusalem and sensitive areas such as Har Homa, Givat Hamatos and E1.”