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EU official: Israeli ‘oppression’ to blame for Palestinian terror

The European Union’s envoy to the Palestinians said that home demolitions and the security barrier are the root causes of terror, shifting the blame for Arab violence to Israel.

By World Israel News Staff

A European Union official said that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians was to blame for terror and their “hatred” of the Jewish State on Tuesday.

During a speech at the Alliance for Middle East Peace conference in Jerusalem, European Union Representative to the Palestinian Authority Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff specifically mentioned the security barrier and home demolitions of terrorists as the cause of deadly Arab attacks.

In his remarks, von Burgsdorff did not acknowledge a long history of Palestinian antisemitism, which predates the establishment of the State of Israel.

“When you are a Palestinian child living next to the separation wall, what do you think this child will grow up with,” he said, according to a Jerusalem Post report.

“What do you think a child who sees the houses of their parents, their brothers and sisters demolished because he or she was a suspected or real terrorist [will feel?]” he asked the audience. “What kind of hatred will burn in this child? What do you think will happen?”

Although von Burgsdorff’s comments implied that home demolitions of terrorists are a regular occurrence in Israel, the deterrence method is used only in exceptional circumstances and after a judicial review process in which the terrorist’s family has an opportunity to appeal the demolition order.

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“We need to bring to the fore and to worldwide attention the plight the people of Palestine have been under for the past 74 years,” he continued, with that number indicating the time since the founding of the State of Israel.

“Since 2008, thousands of Palestinians have been killed,” he said. “Only a handful of those perpetrators have been brought to justice, only a handful.”

When speaking about the “thousands” of slain Palestinians, the diplomat was likely including those killed while perpetrating terror attacks or in clashes with IDF troops.

“We saw, a few months ago and the last few weeks, terrible terror attacks perpetrated on Israeli territory,” von Burgsdorff said. “Twenty Israeli innocents lost their lives. But don’t be surprised, because there is hatred burning in many of these young Palestinians.”