Berlin 09-03-2010
The German government – along with the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton- has criticized the Israeli decision to build more Jewish homes on occupied Palestinian land saying it would hinder planned ‘peace talks’.
The German Foreign Ministry on Wednesday voiced sharp criticism of an Israeli decision to approve the building of new homes on occupied land in East Jerusalem.
Germany supports Israel’s right to exist and feels a special responsibility to it in light of the Holocaust and has been very reluctant and unwilling- many would say too reluctant and unwilling- to criticize the country over its relations with the Palestinians. However good friends should be critical in important matters – and this is very important.
The decision to build the homes, in a strongly Jewish Orthodox neighborhood near to a Palestinian village was announced on Tuesday – a day after the announcement that indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, brokered by US Vice President Joe Biden, had been agreed.
It has been revealed that the US envoy was so enraged by this personal affront that he ended up being 90 minutes late for a state dinner hosted by Netanyahu, the bellicose Israeli PM and no friend of the Obama administration.
Israel had previously called a Moratorium on building any homes in the occupied West Bank.
However, this did not include East Jerusalem which Israel seized by force in 1967 and later ‘annexed’ [permanently stole] in a move that no one internationally has recognized.
Relations between Israel and the EU, never very close, were recently strained even more after a murder in Dubai of a Hamas official – for which forged passports from EU countries including Germany were used.
There is a strong and credible link leading to the Israeli secret service ‘Mossad’ as the perpetuator of this crime.
Loading ...
