The European Union has registered its objections – as usual – to the latest announcement by Israel’s Ministry of Housing and Construction of a plan to relieve the nightmare of overcrowding in the nation’s capital.
Plans to build some 800 new apartments in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Ramot and Pisgat Ze’ev triggered the latest complaint by Europe’s foreign policy bureau, claiming that new housing in these neighborhoods will prevent peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
It’s not a new complaint. Every single action Israel takes in its capital city to relieve overcrowding is an action to prevent peace with the Palestinian Authority, according to the European Union, mainly because the geopolitical body sides with Ramallah on its claim that Israel should hand over any territory that was in Jordanian hands during that country’s own 19-year occupation of land, prior to the 1967 Six Day War.
Somehow, citizens of the Palestinian Authority have found it historically preferable to be “occupied” by Jordan than to be free to determine their own future – even if that meant choosing repeatedly to reject peace and to reject statehood.
“The policy of settlement construction and expansion in East Jerusalem continues to undermine the possibility of a viable two state solution with Jerusalem as the future capital of both states, which is the only realistic way to achieve a just and lasting peace,” the European Union wrote in its latest statement released June 1, in its role of attorney for the Palestinian Authority.
“The European Union is strongly opposed to Israel’s settlement policy, including in East Jerusalem, which is illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace. The EU will continue to engage with both parties and with its international and regional partners to support a resumption of a meaningful process towards a negotiated two-state solution.”
Perhaps the EU has not yet made its peace with the reality that housing construction in Israel’s capital is not “settlement” but just “housing” and we are long past the time that Europe should step out. But it seems Brussels will continue to badger and nag Israel with its fantasies, if only to justify itself to the Palestinian Authority.