Tag: Israel

Six EU-funded wind and solar energy projects which provide electricity for 600 West Bank Palestinians have been put on a ‘demolition list’ by Israel, allegedly in response to an EU heads of mission report which called for laws to prevent the financing of settlements.

Riding on France's new status in the Arab world following the Libya War, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called yesterday (21 September) for an "intermediate stage" in the recognition of Palestine by the United Nations.

The EU must make peace between Israel and Palestine one of the top priorities of its Middle East policy. But there can be no peace in the region without a viable Palestinian state, argues Eberhard Rhein.

The recent downgrade in Turkish-Israeli relations is not beneficial to either country, leaving Israel more isolated and depriving Turkey of its role as a mediator at a time of acute instability and change in the region, argue Emiliano Alessandri and Joshua Walker of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Palestinian plans to take a statehood bid to the UN in September could spark bloodshed, warns Israel's ambassador to Brussels, Ran Curiel. Instead, he argues, the EU should stand by the Quartet's principles and so help Israel to negotiate a Palestinian state. 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is visiting Paris today (21 April) to try to persuade his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy to recognise Palestinian statehood at a UN General Assembly vote in September. Diplomats say France is "extremely positive" about the initiative.

The European Union expressed both criticism and hope for renewed cooperation with Israel at a meeting on Tuesday (22 February) of the EU-Israel Association Council.

Despite tensions among several of its member countries, an excellent atmosphere reigns in the secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean, an EU initiative for promoting stability and prosperity across the sea that divides Europe from Africa and Asia, Ilan Chet, the project's deputy secretary-general, told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

The new Turkish constitution will put the judiciary in the hands of the government ahead of national elections, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), the main opposition force in Turkey, told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has deplored the absence of the European Union from direct talks between Israel and Palestine, which are due to start today (2 September) in Washington.

World powers facing a fateful deadline in the Middle East peace process will invite Israelis and Palestinians to open direct talks on 2 September in Washington, a diplomatic source said yesterday (19 August).

Israel should ease its Gaza blockade further and allow Palestinians to resume exports from the territory, the European Union's foreign policy chief said on Sunday (18 July) during a visit to the Hamas-controlled enclave.

The new direction of Turkish foreign policy heralds less of a 'zero-conflict' strategy than the stirring of further tensions in the region, according to Schlomo Avineri, director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Yitzhak Rabin's first cabinet.

Turkish President Abdullah Gül and France's State Secretary for Europe Pierre Lellouche spoke to EurActiv at an Istanbul conference, which appeared to be a dress rehearsal ahead of a 'make or break' visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Turkey later this year.

About 15 people were killed today (31 May) when the Israeli navy intercepted ships carrying aid and pro-Palestinian activists toward the Gaza Strip. The bloodshed sparked strong reactions of condemnation from the European Commission, the European Parliament president and major political groups.

Israel's plans to build new settlements in occupied East Jerusalem threaten the renewal of peace talks with the Palestinians, the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on 16 March.

Among the Palestinian public, attitudes to the European Union can be characterised as very positive, Nidal Foqaha of the Palestinian Peace Coalition, director-general of the Geneva Initiative for Palestine, told EurActiv Slovakia in an interview.

The European Union yesterday (22 February) condemned the use of fraudulent EU passports by the killers of a Palestinian militant in Dubai, indicating discontent with Israel without referring to the country directly. The Israeli foreign minister said Europeans had been watching "too many James Bond movies".

The European Union on 8 December urged Israel to share Jerusalem with the Palestinians as part of a Middle East peace agreement and make the holy city the capital of two states.

A huge enthusiastic crowd hailed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's arrival at Istanbul airport early this morning (30 January), after he cut short a debate with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum, saying he would never return to Davos.

"The EU has to restructure its failed strategy [in Gaza] and seek to bring the new US administration to a similar re-appraisal and policy change," argue Michael Emerson and Richard Youngs, associate senior research fellows at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), and Natalie Tocci, senior research fellow at the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome, in a January CEPS report.

As was the case during last summer's Georgia crisis, the EU has once again responded to the first international challenges of 2009 by sending observers, this time to monitor the borders between Gaza and Egypt, and Russia and Ukraine to supervise the supply of gas intended for Europe.

Following France's example with the EuroMed proposal, Poland and Sweden are due to present an 'Eastern Initiative' at a meeting next week, in a move which diplomats warned could ruin the EU's patient efforts to craft a common external policy.

The UN, US, EU and Russia have laid down the details of an emergency plan agreed earlier in May that will see direct payments bypassing the Palestinian government to cover basic healthcare needs.