Tag Archive for EU

| September 16, 2012
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EU ups its pledges to €200M aid for the Palestinians

EU to double its aid package to PA; development funds earmarked for infrastructure & rehabilitation

Reuters

 

EU headquarters – Photo: AP

The European Union will double its aid for Palestinian development and the Palestinian Authority to €200 million in 2012, the EU executive said on Friday.

The development aid will be focused on water, sanitation and support for refugees. A further €100 million aid credits unspent last year will be also spent in 2012, the European Commission said in a statement.

“The decision shows our commitment to help the people of Palestine in the areas which are vital to their everyday lives,” said Stefan Fuele, EU commissioner for enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| September 9, 2012
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Dutch & UK urge sanctions against Hezbollah

FMs call on all EU countries in joining the U.S. by imposing sanctions on Hezbollah for providing support to Syria’s Assad

By REUTERS

 

PAPHOS, Cyprus – Britain and the Netherlands urged other EU governments on Friday to join the United States in imposing sanctions on the Lebanese political and militant group Hezbollah for providing support to Syria’s President Bashar Assad.

Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah -Photo: REUTERS/Sharif Karim

Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah – Photo: REUTERS/Sharif Karim

Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said the European Union should brand Hezbollah a terrorist organization, a move that would enable the bloc to freeze the group’s assets in Europe.

“We have for quite some time now argued that effective European measures should be taken against Hezbollah,” Rosenthal said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Cyprus to discuss the EU’s response to the Syrian crisis.The

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| September 8, 2012
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Britain’s Hague Recommends that the EU Designate Hizbullah as a Terror Org

Britain’s Foreign Secretary presses the EU to have Hizbullah put on its list of terrorist organizations.

By Elad Benari, Canada

 

Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague on Friday urged the European Union to place the military branch of the Lebanese-based Hizbullah on its list of terrorist organizations, AFP reported.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague

British Foreign Secretary William Hague
Reuters

“I would like to see the EU designate and sanction the military wing of Hizbullah,” Hague was quoted as having said in response to a question on arriving for talks with his EU counterparts.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, however, appeared to suggest this was not possible now. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| August 16, 2012
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US intelligence report: Hezbollah operating in Europe with Impunity

US intelligence experts warn EU’s persistent refusal to include the Shiite militia in Europe’s terror watch-list will eventually render all their counter-terrorism efforts useless

By Yitzhak Benhorin

 

WASHINGTON – Despite continuous warnings by the United States and Israel, the European Union still refuses to include Hezbollah on its terror watch-list and as a result, the Shiite militia’s activities on the continent, both overt and covert, are increasing in a disconcerting rate.

According to a recent US intelligence report, thousands of Hezbollah members and supporters operate within the EU and raise money for its Beirut-based leadership.

According to the New York Times, despite the insistence of Washington and Jerusalem – which maintain that Hezbollah is backed by Iran – the European Union refuses to treat it as anything other than a Lebanese political and social movement. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| August 14, 2012
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The European Union says City of Modiin is Not Part of Israel

The EU decided that the city of Modiin, home to 80,000, was built on ‘no-man’s land’ and is not in the State of Israel.

By Maayana Miskin

 

The European Union has decided that the city of Modiin-Maccabim-Reut (Modiin) is not a part of Israel. The city was built on what was no-man’s land after the 1948 War of Independence, and therefore will not be considered Israel proper, EU officials said.

The decision was made as part of an EU initiative to decide which Israeli products will benefit from tax breaks under a 1995 agreement.

Israeli and EU officials reached an understanding years ago according to which items produced in areas settled by Israel after 1967 will not enjoy tax breaks despite the 1995 deal. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags:
| July 25, 2012
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FM Liberman addresses Hezbollah as a terror group, relations with Turkey, & Syria’s biological weapons

Liberman cites adding Hezbollah to EU terrorist blacklist is a process that will take time.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

 

There is significant support for Israel’s call to add Hezbollah to the EU’s terrorist blacklist, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman told Israel Radio from Brussels, in an interview aired Wednesday morning.

Avigdor Lieberman

FM Avigdor Lieberman – Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski

Liberman met Tuesday with his EU colleagues as part of the annual EU-Israel Association Council meeting, where he called on the body to put the Lebanese organization on its terrorist list.

He said that discussion of his request, which seemed to be initially dismissed by EU officials, had been misrepresented, and that no one had expected it to be immediately accepted without debate.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| June 6, 2012
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Dutch ban on kosher slaughter sidestepped by agreement

Slaughter according to Jewish, Islamic law has been a source of some debate after the Animal Rights Party proposed banning the practice.

Dutch Agriculture Minister Hans Bleker signed an agreement with Jewish and Muslim religious leaders and slaughterhouses which will prevent a ban on ritual slaughter.

Under the agreement signed Tuesday, animals can continue to be ritually slaughtered as long as they lose consciousness within 40 seconds of their throats being cut. After 40 seconds they must be stunned, which is prohibited under both Jewish and Islamic law.

A cow. Its Dutch brethren will continue being ritually slaughtered.

A cow. Its Dutch brethren will continue being ritually slaughtered. - Photo by Yuval Tebol

The agreement comes following Animal Rights Party leader Marianne Thieme withdrawal last December of a bill that would have required stunning of all animals before slaughtering, after a majority of senators expressed their objection to the ban on kosher slaughter, or shechitah. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: ,
| May 23, 2012
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EU Statement Suggests Arabs Can Throw Stones at Protests

A statement issued by the European Union seems to suggest it supports PA Arabs’ rights to throw stones during non-violent protests.

A statement issued by the European Union on Tuesday seemed to suggest it supports Palestinian Authority Arabs’ rights to throw stones during non-violent protests.

The statement, released on Tuesday by the spokesperson of Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, criticized Israel for convicting PA Arab Bassem Tamimi of dispatching stone-throwers and protesting illegally.

Catherine Ashton

Catherine Ashton - Reuters

An Israeli court convicted Tamimi on Sunday, according to an AFP report. The 45-year-old was charged with soliciting stone-throwing based on evidence that he directed such incidents from the roof-tops. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| May 16, 2012
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EU issues second document blasting Israel

Document critiques Israel for anti-democratic bills, anti-Arab discrimination, not prosecuting settler violence.

 

For the second day in a row, the European Union issued a document that had some harsh words for Israel, saying a spate of “potentially discriminatory or even anti-democratic bills” were tabled in the Knesset, and blasting Jerusalem for not prosecuting those responsible for settler violence.

The criticism came in an annual document summarizing the political and economic situation in Israel as part of the EU’s review of its partnership with other countries, known as the European Neighborhood Policy.

European Union flags in Brussels

European Union flags in Brussels - Photo: Thinkstock/Imagebank

Regarding the Knesset bills the EU deems problematic, the report stated that while the democratic process ensured that many of the bills would not become law, “their number, and the scant effort made by their proponents to hide the fact that they were intended to benefit or target specific individuals or organizations, is worrying.
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Category: Israel News | Tags:
| May 9, 2012
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PM to Ashton: Iran must halt all uranium enrichment

Netanyahu meets with EU foreign policy chief along with FM, Barak, and newly-minted Vice Premier Mofaz ahead of upcoming round of nuclear talks between the P5+1 and Tehran.

 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday told EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton that Iran must halt all uranium enrichment, after Iran preemptively rejected the EU’s own request to do so.

During the meeting, in which the prime minister and Ashton discussed the new round of upcoming talks between Western nations and Iran, Netanyahu also requested that Iran remove all enriched uranium currently in its territory, and cease work at the Fordow nuclear facility, which is located deep inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom. Continue Reading »

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