Israel Anger As EU Blocks Funding Beyond Green Line

[Devil Soul]

Israel Anger As EU Blocks Funding Beyond Green Line
Arabs Demand IAEA Watch Over Israeli Nuke Facilities
JERUSALEM, July 16, (Agencies): Israeli officials on Tuesday lashed out at the EU over new guidelines barring its 28 member states from funding projects in Jewish settlements, including annexed east Jerusalem. The guidelines were adopted by the European Commission on June 28 and will affect all EU grants, prizes and funding from 2014 onwards, with no further funding available to Israeli entities beyond the 1967 Green Line, officials said. They will be formally published on Friday. The move infuriated Israel, with a high-ranking official describing it as an “attack” on the Jewish state. “When it comes to disputed territories, the Europeans prefer to attack a small country like Israel instead of taking on more powerful states, because they’re afraid of retaliation,” he said. Israel, he said, had only been informed about the move “at the last moment.”

The guidelines require a clear distinction be made in all signed agreements between Israel and the territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war — including the Golan Heights as well as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including east Jerusalem.
“These are guidelines on the eligibility of Israeli entities and their activity in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 for grants, prizes and financial instruments funded by the EU from 2014 onwards,” EU spokesman David Kriss told AFP.
“It makes a distinction between Israel and the entities in the West Bank, east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights,” he said.
The aspect which has most angered Israel is the “territorial eligibility” clause which means that from 2014, only territories within the 1967 will be considered eligible for any EU funding. “This is the first time such an official, explicit directive has been published by the European Union bodies,” a senior Israeli official told Haaretz newspaper, describing the move as an “earthquake” with both practical and political significance.
“Until today there were understandings and quiet agreements that the EU does not work beyond the Green Line; now this has become a formal, binding policy.

Also:
VIENNA: The Arab member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have included an item on the agenda of the agency’s forthcoming annual convention, due on September 16, demanding Israel to put its nuclear facilities and materials under IAEA watch, official sources in the agency said on Tuesday.
The IAEA handed out copies of the annual convention agenda to its members, which included an additional item submitted by head of the Arab Group in Vienna, Oman’s Ambassador Badr Al-Hinai. The item was a request that Israeli nuclear capabilities be put on the convention’s agenda, official IAEA sources confirmed to KUNA.


The sources also indicated that IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano has received the Arab request for the items to be included in the agenda of the September convention, despite objection by Western countries to this Arab move.
In the same context, Arab diplomatic sources told KUNA that the Arab Group had no alternative but to address this item in this manner, due to Western countries failure to honor their commitments.
This was in reference, among other things, to promises of hosting an international conference to start talks on a proposed Middle East zone that is free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, originally planned to be held in late 2012.
Israel anger as EU blocks funding beyond Green Line

 

[FireFistAce]

it's not like EU to do so, but anyways, nice move.

 

[PeaceGen]

Israel Anger As EU Blocks Funding Beyond Green Line
Arabs Demand IAEA Watch Over Israeli Nuke Facilities
JERUSALEM, July 16, (Agencies): Israeli officials on Tuesday lashed out at the EU over new guidelines barring its 28 member states from funding projects in Jewish settlements, including annexed east Jerusalem. The guidelines were adopted by the European Commission on June 28 and will affect all EU grants, prizes and funding from 2014 onwards, with no further funding available to Israeli entities beyond the 1967 Green Line, officials said. They will be formally published on Friday. The move infuriated Israel, with a high-ranking official describing it as an “attack” on the Jewish state. “When it comes to disputed territories, the Europeans prefer to attack a small country like Israel instead of taking on more powerful states, because they’re afraid of retaliation,” he said. Israel, he said, had only been informed about the move “at the last moment.”

The guidelines require a clear distinction be made in all signed agreements between Israel and the territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war — including the Golan Heights as well as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including east Jerusalem.
“These are guidelines on the eligibility of Israeli entities and their activity in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 for grants, prizes and financial instruments funded by the EU from 2014 onwards,” EU spokesman David Kriss told AFP.
“It makes a distinction between Israel and the entities in the West Bank, east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights,” he said.
The aspect which has most angered Israel is the “territorial eligibility” clause which means that from 2014, only territories within the 1967 will be considered eligible for any EU funding. “This is the first time such an official, explicit directive has been published by the European Union bodies,” a senior Israeli official told Haaretz newspaper, describing the move as an “earthquake” with both practical and political significance.
“Until today there were understandings and quiet agreements that the EU does not work beyond the Green Line; now this has become a formal, binding policy.

Israel anger as EU blocks funding beyond Green Line

Excellent move, EU.