The European-Palestinian Council for Political Relations (EUPAC) launched its activities last week with a seminar at Press Club Brussels Europe on ‘Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories’ since the six-days war in 1967 and its settlements there.
To start with, terminology plays an important role in the conflict and reflects the narratives of the two sides.
For Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, they live under occupation. For Israelis, all of Jerusalem and the West Bank were part of the historical Jewish homeland and cannot be occupied in the negative sense of the word. Legally they are territory “held” until a political situation will be found and called just ‘the territories’ or Judea and Samaria by their Biblical names by Israel.
EUPAC is a new organization in the political landscape in Brussels. It aims at raising awareness about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through seminars and reports, and influencing EU decision makers and the public opinion in Europe. Among others it underlines the need of a realistic understanding of the situation and the Palestinian cause, grounded in reality and supported by evidence.
After the seminar, EUPAC published a concluding statement where it wrote that the Israeli settlements contradict international law and cements the Israeli occupation. It is the cause of confiscation of Palestinian lands, travel restrictions, violation of human rights, soldier brutality, settler violence and the existence of two parallel legal frameworks for Israeli settlers and Palestinian inhabitants.
Many European parliamentarians have noted that the Israeli settlements are a fundamental obstacle to reaching a political solution of the conflict, the statement says. No doubt it is an obstacle for a viable two-state solution according to the EU position paper which was presented at the recent EU-Israel association council meeting in Brussels, the first one after a suspension of ten years.
Among the speakers, Dr. Khalil Al-Tafakji Head of the maps department at the Arab Studies Society in Jerusalem, talked about the reality of Israel’s settlement policy which in his view is getting more and more dangerous. He showed maps of the expansion of the settlements and outposts over the years. The latter are illegal also according to Israeli law but are seldom dismantled.
The Brussels Times asked him about the maps that were discussed at the Camp David summit in 2000 between then Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and former Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat, and in 2008 between another Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and current Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
For Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, they live under occupation. For Israelis, all of Jerusalem and the West Bank were part of the historical Jewish homeland and cannot be occupied in the negative sense of the word. Legally they are territory “held” until a political situation will be found and called just ‘the territories’ or Judea and Samaria by their Biblical names by Israel.
EUPAC is a new organization in the political landscape in Brussels. It aims at raising awareness about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through seminars and reports, and influencing EU decision makers and the public opinion in Europe. Among others it underlines the need of a realistic understanding of the situation and the Palestinian cause, grounded in reality and supported by evidence.
After the seminar, EUPAC published a concluding statement where it wrote that the Israeli settlements contradict international law and cements the Israeli occupation. It is the cause of confiscation of Palestinian lands, travel restrictions, violation of human rights, soldier brutality, settler violence and the existence of two parallel legal frameworks for Israeli settlers and Palestinian inhabitants.
Many European parliamentarians have noted that the Israeli settlements are a fundamental obstacle to reaching a political solution of the conflict, the statement says. No doubt it is an obstacle for a viable two-state solution according to the EU position paper which was presented at the recent EU-Israel association council meeting in Brussels, the first one after a suspension of ten years.
Among the speakers, Dr. Khalil Al-Tafakji Head of the maps department at the Arab Studies Society in Jerusalem, talked about the reality of Israel’s settlement policy which in his view is getting more and more dangerous. He showed maps of the expansion of the settlements and outposts over the years. The latter are illegal also according to Israeli law but are seldom dismantled.
The Brussels Times asked him about the maps that were discussed at the Camp David summit in 2000 between then Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and former Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat, and in 2008 between another Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and current Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
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