David Singer: The European Union Must End PLO Subjugation and Exploitation

Here is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

The European Union (EU) possesses the financial levers to end 10 years of exploitative rule by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in not holding any elections in the West Bank during that period.

95 per cent of the West Bank Arab population live in Areas “A” and “B” under the total administrative control of the PLO. That population has been subjugated into silence by the PLO and given no opportunity to freely express their support or otherwise for the political and economic decisions taken by the PLO since 2006.

The EU in February 2015 released €130 million in direct financial support to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and a further €82 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, commented at the time:

“The EU remains committed to the two-state solution and will therefore continue to support the Palestinian Authority in its state-building efforts and in delivering basic social services.”

Hahn’s statement ignored that the PA had:

1. frustrated state-building efforts to bring about the two-state solution during the previous twelve months by refusing to resume negotiations with Israel without preconditions. 

2. ceased to exist as a legal entity after President Abbas had disbanded it by Presidential decree on 3 January 2013.

The stated purpose of EU funding – introduced in 2008 – included sustaining the now-defunct PA 

“in its effort to pursue the fundamental values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.”

 The PLO spurns these values:

1. continuing to declare international law – the Mandate for Palestine and Article 80 of the UN Charter – null and void and

2. denying its own citizens the right to free speech and free elections.

Yet – despite another 12 months of no negotiations with Israel – the EU directly channelled another €170.5 million to the PA on 1 March 2016 and €82 million to UNRWA. High Representative/ Vice-President, Federica Mogherini,  said:

"The European Union renews its concrete commitment to the Palestinians. Through this package, the EU supports the daily lives of Palestinians in the fields of education and health, protecting the poorest families and also providing the Palestinian refugees with access to essential services. These are tangible steps on the ground that can improve the lives of Palestinian people. But these steps are not enough; Palestinian institutions must continue to grow stronger, become more transparent, more accountable and more democratic. Viable and inclusive institutions, based on respect for the rule of law and human rights, are crucial in view of the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian State. Because what we want to achieve is the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian State living side by side, in peace and security, with the State of Israel and other neighbours."

Again we hear the same pious platitudes of democracy, respect for the rule of law and human rights uttered by the EU – but ignored by the PLO.

Surely it is time for the EU to demand that President Abbas:

1. Resign his office as president – an office he clings to seven years after his four year term expired – to end growing public perceptions of corruption now held by 81 per cent of the population and curb his escalating autocratic tendencies

2. Hold EU-supervised elections in the West Bank for the first time since 2006 

3. End the radicalisation and Jew-hatred being taught in UNRWA schools beginning in Grade 1

4. Resume direct negotiations with Israel without preconditions

How long is the EU going to keep shelling out large sums of money – only to see the implementation of its noble objectives being continually subverted?

European Union Risks “Jew-hater” Label: David Singer

http://hpmonitor.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/todays-anti-bds-poster.html

Here is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

The European Union (EU) runs the risk of being labelled “Jew-hater” – should it proceed with its plans requiring supermarkets and other retailers to label products made by Jews in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) differently from those made by Jews in Israel.

No matter what spin the EU uses to justify any such discriminatory labelling – the EU will be seen to be actively supporting the 2005 Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel – whose manifesto states:

“We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel … We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel …” 

“These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall 

2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and

3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”

The BDS campaign regards the ending of all trade and economic relations with Jews living in Judea and Samaria as just the “first step” in its campaign of racial vilification, denigration and delegitimisation designed to ultimately dismantle the Jewish State.

The EU appears to be readying itself to help the BDS campaign achieve this “first step” – as the foreign ministers of 16 of the EU’s 28 member states have urged EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini to introduce the labelling regulations – stating in a letter dated 16 April that they: 

“remain of the view that this is an important step in the full implementation of EU longstanding policy, in relation to the preservation of the two-state solution. The continued expansion of Israeli illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and other territories occupied by Israel since 1967 threatens the prospect of a just and final peace agreement.”

These foreign ministers conveniently ignore that:

1. The two-state solution – as contemplated by the Oslo Accords and the Bush Roadmap – is dead and buried after fruitless negotiations and rejected Israeli offers made during the past 20 years have all come to nought. Any hope of peacefully resolving the competing territorial claims of both Jews and Arabs to Judea and Samaria under these negotiating parameters is a figment of the EU’s imagination.

2. The Palestinian Authority – Israel’s negotiating partner under Oslo and the Roadmap – no longer exists, having been disbanded by decree of Mahmoud Abbas on 3 January 2013.

 3. Earlier two-state solutions were rejected by the Arabs:

(i) when that result could have been achieved with the stroke of an Arab League pen at any time between 1948-1967 or

(ii) when previously proposed by:

(a) Britain in 1923

(b) the Peel Commission in 1937

(c) the United Nations in 1947

4. Jews are residing legally in Judea and Samaria pursuant to the rights vested in the Jewish people under Article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and Article 80 of the United Nations Charter.

The EU labelling diktat – if it proceeds – will have very little economic effect.

Such EU action will however align the EU squarely with those BDS racists and Jew-haters who continue to drool at the prospect of Israel being replaced by another Arab and Islamic State.

The EU will indeed merit the “Jew-hater” tag  – should its ill-considered and misconceived labelling action proceed.

David Singer Assails The EU's Egregious & Duplicitous West Bank Blunder

Here is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.  It is entitled "European Union Causes Peace Process and Quartet Meltdown".

Writes David Singer:

Revelations that the European Union (EU) has been acting illegally in funding and facilitating the construction of more than 400 unauthorised buildings in areas in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) under exclusive Israeli control signals the end of:

* negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation under the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2003 Bush Roadmap and

* the role of the Quartet - America, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union - as mediator in those negotiations

The Daily Mail – in exposing the EU’s bizarre behaviour – reported on 6 February that: 

“Official EU documentation reveals that the building project is intended to ‘pave the way for development and more authority of the PA over Area C (the Israeli area)’, which some experts say is an attempt to unilaterally affect facts on the ground. Locally, the villages are known as the ‘EU Settlements’, and can be found in 17 locations around the West Bank. They proudly fly the EU flag, and display hundreds of EU stickers and signs. Some also bear the logos of Oxfam and other NGOs, which have assisted in the projects.” 

The EU through its spokesman, Shadi Othman, attempted to justify such conduct by reiterating the EU’s unilateral opinion as to the final outcome of the currently stalled negotiations:

"We support the Palestinian presence in Area C. Palestinian presence should not be limited Areas A and B. Area C is part of the occupied Palestinian territory which eventually will be Palestinian land.”

Why Israel's approval was not first sought before the EU surreptitiously undertook such activity remains unexplained.

Representatives of the Quartet – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov , United States Secretary of State John Kerry, European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson (representing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon)  met in Munich on February 8 – two days after the European Union's illegal actions were exposed – but no mention was made of the EU’s devious conduct nor was there any call for it to be immediately halted.

The remaining three Quartet members have – by their silence – clearly signalled they condone such illegal conduct by the EU and support its continuation.

Hypocritically, the Quartet Representatives declared: 

“Pending the resumption of negotiations, the Quartet called on both parties to refrain from actions that undermine trust or prejudge final status issues.” 

It is hard to conceive any action more likely to undermine trust or prejudge final status issues than the Quartet’s failure to condemn the EU’s own aberrant behaviour and call for an immediate halt to its illegal activities in the West Bank.

The Quartet Representatives repeated their mantra: 

“A sustainable peace requires the Palestinians' aspirations for statehood and sovereignty and those of Israelis for security to be fulfilled through negotiations based on the two-state solution.”

 The parameters under which those negotiations were being held between Israel and the PLO have now been well and truly consigned to the dustbin of history as a result of the EU’s disgraceful conduct – joining so many other failed proposals made since 1920 aimed at ending the Jewish-Arab conflict.

The Quartet has been found sadly wanting and is clearly out of tune – abandoning any sense of impartiality or propriety in aligning itself with one party to the dispute.

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has now directed that action be commenced to demolish these illegal EU structures.

The Quartet has been totally compromised – the peace process and its intricate negotiating structure irretrievably ended.

Back to the drawing board for yet another new proposal...

David Singer: Palestine – European Union Embroiled in Financial Scandal

Here is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.
He writes:

'The European Union (EU) has become embroiled in a financial scandal of massive proportions in relation to the financial assistance given by it to the Palestinian Authority (PA) since 1994.

This appears very clear from the comprehensive European Court of Auditors Report dated 22 October 2013 which was only made public this week.

The Report reveals the following:

1. During the period 1994–2006, more than 2.7 billion euro was allocated to the Palestinian Authority from the EU’s general budget.

2. Between 2007 and 2012 some 2.9 billion euro was committed from the EU general budget. The main focus of EU assistance involved direct financial support (DFS) - which accounted for 47.4 per cent of the overall assistance in the period 2007–12.

3. DFS was the EU’s response to the political, fiscal and humanitarian crisis that followed the temporary suspension of most aid to the PA following Hamas’ January 2006 election victory. A ‘temporary international mechanism’ (TIM) was established which aimed to ensure the direct delivery of assistance to the Palestinian population while bypassing a Hamas-led government. TIM - initially set up for 3 months - operated between June 2006 and February 2008 - until replaced by the current mechanism – PEGASE - which is largely based on TIM

4. PEGASE DFS has had the broad objective of helping the PA continue to function until the overall political objective of a two state solution is achieved.

5. The main objective of PEGASE DFS is to help the PA to meet its obligations towards civil service employees and pensioners (CSP) and maintain the functioning of the administration and the provision of essential public services to the population;

6. Support for civil servants and pensioners comprised 72.5 per cent of total funding.

7. Since the launch of PEGASE DFS in February 2008, few substantial changes have been made to the CSP component. This is in spite of changes in the operational environment, including the increasing number of beneficiaries, the rise in the number of civil servants not attending work after public sector strikes in Gaza in August–September 2008 and the growing need for civil service reform.

8. The EU has not developed a clear strategy on how to reduce the PA’s dependency on PEGASE DFS support over time.

9. From 2008 to 2012, the average number of civil servants and pensioners that regularly had part of their salary paid by contributions from the CSP component rose from 75 502 to 84 320. This represents approximately half of the PA’s 170 000 civil servants and pensioners.

10. The PA has made little progress on civil service and pension reforms to reduce the fiscal impact of the increasing numbers of staff and pensioners, for example, by reducing the number of PA staff or amending the rules regulating entitlements.

11. The audit found indications that in Gaza a considerable number of civil servants were receiving salaries - partly funded by PEGASE DFS - because they were eligible for support by virtue of being on the PA payroll but who were not going to work due to the political situation in Gaza. Some civil servants were dismissed after the Hamas takeover because they supported the PA, while others were demoted or locked out following the PA trade union strikes of August– September 2008.

12. Out of 10 Gaza beneficiaries selected by the audit for interviews, three stated that they were not working, while one was absent. The audit also found that the State Audit and Administra-tive Control Bureau was obliged, in accordance with PA regulations, to pay salaries for its 90 staff members in Gaza, all of whom are unable to work. These findings are consistent with estimates based on data from interviews provided in a 2010 evaluation of PEGASE contracted by the EU which indicated that 22 per cent and 24 per cent respectively of the staff employed by the PA Ministries of Health and Education in Gaza were not working at the time.

13. The EU while aware of this problem, has not taken adequate steps to address it and was unable to provide clear information on the extent of this practice. Given the amount of money

which the EU is providing through PEGASE DFS, it would have been expected that they could obtain such information from the PA.

14. Despite the importance of this issue, there was no transparent reference to PEGASE DFS being used to pay non-performing workers in any of the EU’s financing documentation for the annual programmes.

15. While PEGASE is intended to support public services for the benefit of the Palestinian population, the payment of non-performing civil servants does not serve this objective

Spending hundreds of millions of dollars supposedly supporting the salaries of public servants that no longer occupy those positions and doing nothing to arrest this expenditure - although knowing it was happening - indicates an appalling standard of financial irresponsibility for which the EU has become famous.

This financial gravy train seems set to continue whilst:

1. Hamas and the PLO refuse to reconcile their differences

2. The PLO rejects any kind of settlement with Israel that entails Israel obtaining sovereignty in any part of the West Bank.

The European Union is on a treadmill from which it must now extricate itself.

The obvious solution is to make sure EU money gets to the most needy – not phantom employees who have been having a financial feast at European taxpayers expense.'

David Singer On Why The European Union Cannot Ignore Lieberman's Letter

Via the antipodean J-Wire service as usual comes this latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer. It's entitled "Palestine – Where To From Here?".

Writes David Singer:

'Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has written to Her Excellency Baroness Ashton, High Representative  of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security, "to demonstrate Israel’s goodwill, desire to build trust and sincere desire to create a positive atmosphere vis-á-vis the PA, with the goal of bringing our neighbors back to the table of direct negotiations".

The PA has refused to resume direct negotiations until Israel agrees to impose a construction freeze in the West Bank for the duration of such resumed negotiations – which Israel refuses to do.

 Mr Lieberman has listed the following "significant gestures" made by Israel to attract the PA to drop its demand for a freeze and return to the negotiating table – which he claims are "not properly represented or reflected in the policy of the European Union or the Quartet on this subject".

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Shteinitz and PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad concluded (July 31) arrangements with respect to the transfer of goods between Israel and the PA and related tax procedures as recommended by the International Monetary Fund;

 In light of the PA‘s budget crisis, Israel transferred at the beginning of the month of Ramadan (July 27) an advance of NIS 180 million (approximately USD 45 million) of August tax remittances. The money was intended to help the PA pay salaries in time to celebrate the holiday;

 An agreement was concluded (July 14) to employ an additional 5,000 Palestinian construction workers in Israel;

The number of roadblocks was reduced to 10, most of which are normally open;

The remains of Palestinian terrorists were returned (May 31);

Israel agreed to develop the gas field off the Gaza shoreline;

 Israel is promoting infrastructure projects in Area C, including completion of a master plan. In 2011, 119 infrastructure projects were approved, 58 of them with international financing. Fifteen projects relating to the construction and renovation of infrastructures for schools and clinics have received "fast-track" approval.

Mr Lieberman complains that there has been no willingness or positive attitude on the part of the PA to reciprocate these moves – and has pointed to the following actions undertaken  in the diplomatic and legal arenas against Israel:

Attempts to accelerate illegal construction in Area C of the West Bank where sole  responsibility is vested in Israel (including dragging the EU into this problematic activity);

Encouraging an economic boycott on the Israeli economy in the West Bank;

Generating repeated negative statements against Israel;

 Blaming Israel for the [alleged] murder of Yassir Arafat;

 Ongoing institutionalized incitement in the Palestinian media, attacking Israel and the legitimacy of the State’s existence.

Mr Lieberman has also made a stinging attack on PA President Mahmoud Abbas, claiming:

Mr Abbas is apparently is uninterested or unable – due to his standing in the domestic Palestinian scene vis-á-vis Hamas, and in light of the regional geopolitical situation – to reach an agreement which would bring an end to the conflict, including addressing all the core issues;

Mr Abbas is creating a culture of blaming Israel for delaying the process, while attempting to achieve advantages without negotiation via blackmailing and ongoing attempts to internationalize the conflict – which he says can be confirmed by the Jordanians;

In a calculated manner, Mr. Abbas is focusing his dialogue with the international community on the subject of settlements. Unfortunately – Mr Lieberman further claims – the international community tends to accept this discourse lock, stock and barrel, without criticism or a nuanced approach. This is a damaging attitude, which according to Mr Liberman does not reflect the reality on the ground.

Mr Lieberman is at pains to further point out that:

The entire area of the settlements constitutes approximately one percent of the area of the West Bank;

The last settlement which Israel constructed was in 1991;

In the framework of the peace accord with Egypt (1979), Israel evacuated all the settlements and military bases in Sinai;

In 2005 Israel evacuated all of its settlements from the Gaza Strip, as well as four settlements in the northern West Bank  - and since such withdrawal 14,000 rockets and missiles have been  indiscriminately shot at towns and villages in southern Israel from Gaza.

Mr Lieberman makes the following further points in relation to the vexed issue of settlements:

Facts and history, as opposed to the simplistic stereotypes and political bias, contradict the idea that somehow the settlement enterprise is the main obstacle to renewing the negotiations;

This premise simply does not stand up to the test of reality or the historic precedent of the peace process between Israel and its neighbors. Both peace accords, with Egypt and Jordan, were signed when settlements existed;

The claim that settlements are the obstacle to peace is unfounded.

Mr Leiberman’s  prescription for restarting the stalled negotiations calls for fresh general elections for the PA to enable a new, legitimate, hopefully realistic Palestinian leadership to be elected.  Such elections were due to be held in 2010 and have since been postponed several times. No new date has been set for such elections.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak have since made it very clear that such a proposal does not represent Israel‘s official position. Clearly, the European Union could not in such circumstances be expected to endorse Mr Lieberman’s proposal as a possible circuit breaker to get negotiations started again.

However,  the European Union cannot keep walking the diplomatic tightrope and simply ignore Mr Lieberman‘s letter.

Surely the way forward now requires the European Union to indicate whether it considers that the PA should resume negotiations without preconditions in the light of the "significant gestures" made by Israel.

If the answer is in the affirmative, then  the European Union should indicate whether the PA’s  refusal to do so would result in the PA being isolated from total or partial diplomatic and financial support from the European Union until the PA resumes such negotiations.

If the answer is in the negative, then the European Union should spell out what it considers needs to be further done by Israel to get the parties around the negotiating table – and whether Israel’s refusal to do so would result in Israel being isolated from total or partial diplomatic and financial support from the European Union until Israel meets the European Union’s requirements

A one line throwaway response from the European Union will not suffice. Baroness Ashton needs to pen a detailed reply to Mr Lieberman without delay.

Mr Lieberman has put Israel’s cards on the table. Now it is time for the European Union to do likewise.'

Cross-posted from here

Oh Bother!

Blogger has been experiencing technical problems for most of today and much of yesterday.  Normal service has only just been restored, but as of the time of writing this two posts I made yesterday, removed by Blogger along with other bloggers' posts during the same time period, have not been restored.  [Update: both are now]

Anyway, during this "outage" I found the following trenchant article that I heartily recommend.

It's by the legendary Elder of Ziyon (who's also been forced to cool his heels today, along with mere apprentice elders like yours truly) - about the dire consequences that are likely to follow EU recognition of a Palestinian State in September:
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2011/05/12/why-are-european-leaders-instigating-all-out-war-in-the-middle-east/

And there's a piece from Andrew Bolt, a stalwart pro-Israel columnist in Australia, rebuking the Australian Government for its largesse to the PA despite the Fatah-Hamas Accord (hat tip: Rita and Shirlee):
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/cuttring_pensions_here_raising_them_for_palestinians#82711