Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem is coming under a new assault from the European Union; fresh guidelines regarding how the EU does business with the state of Israel will require any Israeli entity seeking funding or cooperation from the EU declare that it has no links to any of the occupied territories. Since the EU has no compunctions about implementing sanctions against Iran's civilian population for its government's "terrorism", why should Israeli banks issuing loans to Israeli companies operating in the West Bank expect anything less than equal treatment? "It is often argued that American support is all that really matters to Israel, and it is true that blind American support has until now permitted Israel to continue on a self-destructive and ultimately suicidal path. "However, Europe is geographically, economically and emotionally closer to Israel and Israelis than the United States is. "Europe has the potential to play an enormously constructive role in ending the occupation and achieving peace with some measure of justice, in the best interests of both Israelis and Palestinians. http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/07/18/the-eu-directive-on-the-occupied-territories/
"In light of the clear and unambiguous EU position that Israel’s borders are exclusively those existing prior to the 1967 Six-Day War, there is no legal or logical reason for those EU states which are not yet among the 132 UN member states which have already extended diplomatic recognition to the State of Palestine within its full pre-1967 borders to continue to refrain from doing so. "Those borders, as recognized in the UN General Assembly’s resolution of November 29, 2012, confirming Palestine’s state status, comprise precisely and exclusively that portion of the former Palestine Mandate which the EU does not recognize as Israel’s sovereign territory. "If all or almost all EU states were to recognize the State of Palestine within its full pre-1967 borders, notwithstanding its 46-year-long occupation by the State of Israel, the writing would be clearly on the wall and the end of the occupation and the transformation of the current two-state legality under international law into a decent two-state reality on the ground would become only a question of when, no longer of whether." http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/07/18/the-eu-directive-on-the-occupied-territories/
"The State of Palestine (Arabic: دولة فلسطين‎ Dawlat Filasṭin)[1][2] is a state that was proclaimed on 15 November 1988[3] by the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO's) National Council (PNC) in exile in Algiers which unilaterally adopted the Palestinian Declaration of Independence. It claims the Palestinian territories[3] (defined according to the 1967 borders[10]) and has designated Jerusalem as its capital.[ii][1][2] The areas constituting [5] the State of Palestine have been occupied by Israel since 1967." 'Better start working on your back-stroke.
