EU officially unrecognizes Israeli occupation

The European Union (EU) Friday published guidelines that will bar Israeli organisations, groups and companies based on occupied Palestinian territory from receiving EU funding. "These guidelines set out the conditions under which the Commission will implement key requirements for the award of EU support to Israeli entities or to their activities in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967. Their aim is to ensure the respect of EU positions and commitments in conformity with international law on the non-recognition by the EU of Israel’s sovereignty over the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967," said the statement. The rules also include the EU decision of not recognizing Israeli occupation in the territories, the Golan Heights, Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967. "The EU does not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over any of the (occupied) territories and does not consider them to be part of Israel’s territory," said the statement, making clear that the EU will not recognise any changes to pre-1967 borders, other than those agreed by the parties to the Middle East Peace Process.   -Restrictions will not affect Palestinians- The EU emphasized that the guidelines did not cover EU support in the form of grants, prizes or financial instruments awarded to Pales­tinian entities. "In particular, they do not cover any agreements between the EU, on the one hand, and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation or the Palestinian Auth­ority, on the other hand," said the statement. - Ashton: "EU reiterates its long-held position" “Today the EU published a document that reiterates the long-held position that bilateral agreements with Israel do not cover the territory that came under Israel's administration in June 1967," said Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, in a statement issued following the publishment of the guidelines in the official journal. She added that the specific provisions of the guidelines would not be implemented before January 1, 2014. Referring to the latest initiative to revitalize the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Ashton said, "The EU is deeply committed to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and fully supports Secretary Kerry's intense efforts to restart negotiations at a particularly delicate stage." According to 2002 data, EU is Israel's largest foreign trade partner with 12.6 million euros out of Israel's 47.7 million euros of total foreign trade volume. The European Parliament has previously complained about several instances of EU funding going to Israeli companies based in the occupied territories. The response from Israel has been angry and frenetic. Israel's Prime Minister responded sharply on July 16, saying: “We will not accept any external edicts on our borders.”