Far-right Israeli outrage over EU plan to defend Palestinian land

Right-wing Israeli parliamentarians have accused the EU of ‘blood libel’ and ‘primitive hatred of the Jewish state’ after a six-page document outlined plans to defend Palestinian land in the Occupied West Bank was leaked on Monday. 

The paper, entitled the “European Joint Development Programme for Area C” proposed increasing legal aid for Palestinians, and integrating Palestinian land ownership across areas A, B and C. 

The EU “aims at defending the rights of Palestinians living in Area C and preserving  Area C as part of a future Palestinian State in line with the Oslo accords,” according to the paper. 

Dozens of Israeli extremist politicians wrote to the EU in fury on Wednesday, saying that “under the thin veneer of the EU’s civility and manners and the seeming concern for human rights, the same old blood libels can be found.” 

Under the Oslo accords, Area C was due to be transferred gradually into Palestinian control - a promise which has not been kept. 

“The same flames of primitive hatred that seek this time to persecute – not the individual Jew, but the tiny Jewish state,” continued the joint letter. 

The new right-wing coalition in power has now pledged to transfer Area C to the same Israeli civilian authorities which govern the rest of the state. 

The group took particular rage at EU plans to monitor Israeli archaeological excavations, which routinely erase historical evidence of Palestinian claims to land ownership. 

Extremists have found unprecedented voice and power in the new ruling coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu. 

The EU document, first drafted in June 2022, appears to pre-empt the wave of devastating legislation that will attempt to reshape the fragmented West Bank and annex vast swathes of Palestinian territory, under the new government. 

The EU has previously launched plans to protect Palestinian land under threat from Israeli settlement.

The European Union launched an infrastructure building project with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Denmark in 2020, in an attempt to deter Israel from annexing yet more West Bank territories.

The agreement allocated 5.8 million euros ($6.6 million) for the construction of 16 different social and public infrastructure projects as part of the European Union Area C Development Programme for the occupied West Bank.