EU report slams Israel – Gerry Adams urges Irish Government leadership in EU Presidency

» John Hedges

An Phoblacht Editor

The report concludes that Israel is pursuing a deliberate policy of seeking to drive Palestinians out of East Jerusalem

GERRY ADAMS is urging the Irish Government, which holds the EU Presidency, to act on the just-published ‘EU Heads of Mission Jerusalem Report’ and start by stopping Israeli products from Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank from benefiting from preferential tariffs with the EU.

The Sinn Féin leader describes the 15-page report as “a scathing indictment of the Israeli Government’s flouting of international law and its violation of the rights of Palestinian citizens living in East Jerusalem and the Occupied Territories”.

The report finds that the Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank are “the biggest single threat to the two-state solution”.

The EU report accuses the Israeli Government of implementing a settlement policy that is “systematic, deliberate and provocative”.

It concludes that Israel is pursuing a deliberate policy of seeking to drive Palestinians out of East Jerusalem through restrictive zoning and planning, demolitions and evacuations, discriminatory access to religious sites, an inequitable education policy, difficult access to health care, and inadequate provision of resources.