Israel protests EU demand to permit illegal Palestinian structures

Israel’s Foreign Ministry is protesting the EU’s demand not to demolish illegal Palestinian structures east of Jerusalem. 

Israel’s Foreign Ministry conveyed its displeasure to the European Union (EU) for calling upon Israel to tolerate EU-sponsored, illegally built Palestinian structures in Khan al-Ahmar, a village located just east of Jerusalem, according to a report in Haaretz.

“In Israel, illegal construction is dealt with according to the law,” Avivit Bar-Ilan, director of the Foreign Ministry’s EU department, told EU Deputy Ambassador to Israel Mark Gallagher, according to the foreign ministry’s spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon.

Bar-Ilan was responding to objections to the demolition of  the illegal structures voiced by EU Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen.

“The practice of enforcement measures such as forced transfers, evictions, demolitions and confiscations of homes and humanitarian assets (including EU-funded) and the obstruction of delivery of humanitarian assistance are contrary to Israel’s obligations under international law,” the ambassador had claimed.

Bar-Ilan noted the comparatively large efforts made by the EU to protect illegal Palestinian construction in Judea and Samaria while placing much less interest in profound abuses of human rights in other parts of the world.

“There are 32 humanitarian crises around the world, but the European Union opts to deal disproportionately only with what happens in Area C, which undoubtedly isn’t in a humanitarian crisis,” she reportedly said.

Khan al-Ahmar’s location between Jerusalem and the city of Ma’ale Adumim is in a controversial spot known as “E1.” The EU has vociferously ordered Israel not to construct new housing units there, as the EU views it as a threat to the creation of a contiguous Palestinian Authority state.

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News

European UnionIllegal constructionJudea and SamariaLars Faaborg-Andersen