http://www.euromedaudiovisuel.net/p.aspx?l=en&t=news&mid=21&did=1897
MADE in MED short film contest - Finalist
his web: http://hishamzreiq.com/Films.html
MADE in MED short film contest - Finalist
his web: http://hishamzreiq.com/Films.html
Gerechtigkeit für Palästina - justicia para Palestina - justice pour Palestine - justice for Palestine
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Monday, 9 June 2014
Saturday, 29 March 2014
European Union Parliament joins boycott Israel campaign
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/29/356427/eu-parliament-joins-boycott-israel/
The European Union Parliament has joined a growing international campaign to boycott Israel over its settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In a letter to EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton on Friday, 29 members of the EU Parliament called for an action to discourage European firms from trading with firms based in Israeli settlements.
The EU lawmakers say any economic relations with Israeli firms involved in settlement construction will contribute to Tel Aviv’s violation of international law and human rights abuses.
“There are several examples of the many ways in which European businesses contribute to the existence and expansion of the settlements,” the letter read.
Israel, which is facing isolation over its aggressive policies against Palestinians, is mainly under fire over its ongoing illegal settlement projects.
The European Union has also blocked all grants and funding to any Israeli entity based in the illegal settlements.
The American Studies Association and several European education institutes have also announced a decision to boycott Israeli institutions and academics over discriminatory treatment of Palestinians.
The international boycott of Israeli products, or the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), has cost the Israeli regime 30 million dollars so far.
The BDS campaign is part of international efforts to pressure Tel Aviv to stop illegal constructions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Over half a million Israelis live in more than 120 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank including East Jerusalem al-Quds in 1967.
Israel is reportedly pushing ahead with plans for more than 2,000 new illegal settler units in six settlements in the occupied West Bank.
DB/HSN/HRB
Saturday, 4 August 2012
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
The EU gives carrots to Israel while it gives the stick to Palestinians.
www.europeanvoice.com/article/2012/july/costly-and-complicit-/74858.aspx
Costly and complicit
The EU gives carrots to Israel while it gives the stick to Palestinians.
The EU-Israel Association Council – the highest-level EU-Israel meeting – takes place in Brussels on Tuesday (24 July), barely a month after the people of Gaza marked five years under an Israeli-imposed closure.
Although a political upgrade of relations has formally been frozen since the Gaza war in 2008-09, deepening of economic and technical co-operation seems set to move ahead as usual. Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation continues to fragment the Palestinian population into a series of shrinking cantons, pushing a two-state solution closer to impossibility by the day. How much longer can this inconsistency go on?
Earlier hopes that closer EU ties with Israel would encourage its compliance with international law have been misplaced. If the EU is serious about a just peace in Israel and Palestine, it needs to make a stronger link between its relations with Israel and Israel's respect for international humanitarian law and human rights, as called for by a European Parliament resolution on 5 July. In particular, it should consider the extent to which internationally unlawful actions by Israel restrict EU aid to the occupied Palestinian territory and the development of a future Palestinian state.
Earlier hopes that closer EU ties with Israel would encourage its compliance with international law have been misplaced. If the EU is serious about a just peace in Israel and Palestine, it needs to make a stronger link between its relations with Israel and Israel's respect for international humanitarian law and human rights, as called for by a European Parliament resolution on 5 July. In particular, it should consider the extent to which internationally unlawful actions by Israel restrict EU aid to the occupied Palestinian territory and the development of a future Palestinian state.
The Association Council comes on the heels of the strongest statements yet by EU foreign ministers on the human-rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, which indicate that prospects for a viable Palestinian state next to Israel have never looked worse. A near-hermetic separation of Gaza from the West Bank persists, despite the recognition of the occupied Palestinian territory as a single territory in the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians. This physical division keeps the Palestinian population warehoused in separate units, denying their right to move freely within their territory. Added to policies in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which are aimed at securing illegal Israeli settlements and their growth (such as restrictions on Palestinian building, house demolitions, forced displacement and movement restrictions), it appears that a future Palestinian state is being reduced to a set of fragmented enclaves, devoid of the essential resources and rights needed for development.
These facts are all too well known, and have been described in great detail in reports from the EU ambassadors in the occupied Palestinian territory, which clearly state that Israel's policies are jeopardising a two-state solution. Unfortunately, they do not seem to be taken into account in the further development of bilateral relations with Israel.
Bringing aid into the picture makes it even clearer that the EU could gain far more from putting greater pressure on Israel to change illegal occupation policies that keep many Palestinians dependent on aid. This would not only be in line with EU member states' duty to ensure respect for international humanitarian law, but would also contribute to the effectiveness and impact of the EU's annual aid to the occupied Palestinian territory, which amounts to over €300 million.
European leaders seeking closer ties with Israel would do well to recall the nearly €30 million of European aid projects destroyed by Israeli military operations in Gaza and the West Bank over the past decade. As aid donors, they should also add up the costs of accommodating the illegal closure of Gaza, a policy which creates aid dependency in the first place. Not least of these costs is the EU's €13 million plan to improve the only Gaza crossing for goods that Israel has left open, despite the lack of progress on opening other crossing points, and Israel's dismantling of a bigger donor-funded crossing earlier this year.
Finally, there is the overall question of the vast amounts of EU aid poured into building a Palestinian state. Surely, as the biggest donor to this enterprise, the EU is in a position to bring the question of often unlawful restrictions on Palestinian development into its bilateral relations with Israel? And if such an exercise of EU influence sounds utopian, then what exactly does the EU hope to build in the occupied Palestinian territory?
Giving carrots to Israel while it gives the stick to Palestinians has become a costly and dangerously complicit formula. It is high time that EU leaders realise this, and present Israel with the bill rather than taking the relationship to the next level.
These facts are all too well known, and have been described in great detail in reports from the EU ambassadors in the occupied Palestinian territory, which clearly state that Israel's policies are jeopardising a two-state solution. Unfortunately, they do not seem to be taken into account in the further development of bilateral relations with Israel.
Bringing aid into the picture makes it even clearer that the EU could gain far more from putting greater pressure on Israel to change illegal occupation policies that keep many Palestinians dependent on aid. This would not only be in line with EU member states' duty to ensure respect for international humanitarian law, but would also contribute to the effectiveness and impact of the EU's annual aid to the occupied Palestinian territory, which amounts to over €300 million.
European leaders seeking closer ties with Israel would do well to recall the nearly €30 million of European aid projects destroyed by Israeli military operations in Gaza and the West Bank over the past decade. As aid donors, they should also add up the costs of accommodating the illegal closure of Gaza, a policy which creates aid dependency in the first place. Not least of these costs is the EU's €13 million plan to improve the only Gaza crossing for goods that Israel has left open, despite the lack of progress on opening other crossing points, and Israel's dismantling of a bigger donor-funded crossing earlier this year.
Finally, there is the overall question of the vast amounts of EU aid poured into building a Palestinian state. Surely, as the biggest donor to this enterprise, the EU is in a position to bring the question of often unlawful restrictions on Palestinian development into its bilateral relations with Israel? And if such an exercise of EU influence sounds utopian, then what exactly does the EU hope to build in the occupied Palestinian territory?
Giving carrots to Israel while it gives the stick to Palestinians has become a costly and dangerously complicit formula. It is high time that EU leaders realise this, and present Israel with the bill rather than taking the relationship to the next level.
Deborah Casalin is a member of the Palestine/Israel working group of the international alliance of Catholic development agencies CIDSE.
Monday, 23 July 2012
FM Liberman will ask the EU states to include Hizbullah in the list of terrorist organizations
FM Liberman leaves for Brussels
| 23 Jul 2012 in
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs | ||||||
FM Liberman will ask the EU states to include Hizbullah in the list of terrorist organizations and to boost security arrangements at airports and at Israeli and Jewish facilities in their respective countries.
| ||||||
Thursday, 28 June 2012
Saturday, 23 June 2012
Friday, 15 June 2012
The Council for European Palestinian Relations - CEPR
http://www.thecepr.org/
Our Mission
Our Work
The Council for European Palestinian Relations (CEPR)is an independent not-for-profit organisation which has been established to promote dialogue and understanding between European, Palestinian and Arab parliamentarians and policy-makers. It seeks a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on justice and the restoration of Palestinian rights in accordance with international humanitarian and human rights law.
Aims and Values
- Peace based on justice and the restitution of Palestinian rights
- Respect for international law, the United Nations Charter, UN Resolutions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- A more robust EU foreign policy to the Occupied Palestinian Territories that will promote and defend Palestinian rights and self-determination
- Inter-governmental dialogue to facilitate diplomacy and a greater understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Our Mission
- To strengthen European-Palestinian relations and provide greater understanding of Palestinian issues for legislators and policy-makers
- Develop Europe's role in promoting and defending Palestinian rights
- Facilitate parliamentary delegations and dialogue between governments and policy-makers across Europe and the Arab world
- Produce accurate, up-to-the-minute research and reports to highlight the situation confronting Palestinians.
Our Work
The CEPR organises delegations of European parliamentarians and policy-makers to visit the Occupied Palestinian Territories and neighbouring countries which host Palestinian refugees. This enables delegates to witness at first-hand the situation confronting Palestinians and to gather information so that they can pursue policy changes from an informed and evidence-based perspective.
The CEPR is funded by individual donations from around the world in compliance with Belgian and UK legal requirements. It does not accept funds from any individuals or bodies whose objectives are inimical to the interests of peace and justice.
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