Opinion Israel Is Inventing a Crisis With the EU di Ran Goldstein
haaretz.com
The Strategic Affairs Ministry headed by Gilad Erdan recently published a report that includes harsh accusations against the European Union.
The report charges
that the EU provides financial support for the BDS (boycott, divestment
and sanctions) movement by means of 13 organizations – seven European
and six Palestinian – that promote the delegitimization of Israel.
The report also
claims that ultimately some portion of European tax monies reaches
organizations that have links to terror. However, anyone who checks the
details and studies the claims of the report will see that they can be
refuted.
>> EU blasts Israeli minister: You feed disinformation and mix BDS, terror ■ After reprimand from EU revealed in Haaretz, Erdan to present terror-funding claim in Brussels ■ Splitting the EU: Israel's tightening alliance with Europe's nationalist leaders | Analysis <<
This is a diplomatic
maneuver, which is reminiscent more than anything else of an incident
where the Turkish ambassador was humiliatingly seated on a low chair
by Israeli officials. In effect, the document can only be understood as
a deliberate attempt to create a crisis with the EU and its member
states, as part of a general Israeli campaign aimed at delegitimizing
both Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations, left-wing
groups and anyone who criticizes the occupation policy.
When you read the claims in the ministry’s report, to the effect that the organizations mentioned in it support BDS,
you discover that the source of the charges is the fact that these
groups have called on businesses to discontinue their activity in the
occupied territories. As we know, the Israeli government sees every call
for a boycott against investment in the occupied territories as
equivalent to a boycott against investment in Israel.
It should be
mentioned that the Israeli government itself has signed a trade
agreement with the EU that excludes the settlements.
An example of the
manipulative nature of the report is its mention of an Irish
organization called Trócaire. The report claims that Trócaire has called
for economic sanctions against Israel, when on its website you can see a
public declaration to the effect that not only does the organization
not call for a boycott against Israel, it is involved in activity inside
Israel. At the same time, Trócaire expresses opposition to Israel’s
policy in the territories and calls on companies to stop doing business
there.
Another
claim in the report relates to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights,
a veteran and highly regarded Palestinian human rights organization.
The document claims that the PCHR is connected to the Palestinian Front
for the Liberation of Palestine, which is defined as a terror
organization. This accusation is based on a single piece of evidence –
namely, that in 2014 the PFLP organized a tribute to the director of the
PCHR, Raji Sourani, after he won the Right Livelihood Award, the
“alternative Nobel Prize.”
Some will say that
while it may not have been the epitome of good taste, that event was not
related to terror activity and was aimed at paying tribute to the long
career of an esteemed human rights activist, who received the Robert F.
Kennedy Human Rights Award and was recognized as a prisoner of
conscience by Amnesty International.
With a budget of over
100 million shekels (about $27.5 million) a year for his public
diplomacy battle, the documents issued by Minister Erdan should be
professional, precise and credible, especially in light of their
influence on Israel’s foreign relations.
Erdan’s accusations
of European funding of Palestinian and Israel civil society are having
the opposite impact. As opposed to the support Israel receives from the
world when it is truly fighting for its security, this step by Erdan is
fated to fail, since the Israeli government offers only one approach:
wielding power, with no connection to the facts. Diplomatic power, with
which we attack all our critics, and military power in the field. The nation-state law,
the NGO funding law, the so-called Breaking the Silence law and others –
all are leading to a situation where Israel’s liberal-democratic
decline will be swift and acute. A decline that will be replaced in the
near future, it is to be hoped, by a different power – ethical, humane
and pragmatic – that will lead to genuine concern for the country’s
citizens and hopefully to peace with its neighbors as well.
The writer is the executive director of Physicians for Human Rights.
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