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href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/eu-lets-israel-destroy-west-bank-schools-it-funded">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/eu-lets-israel-destroy-west-bank-schools-it-funded</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">EU lets Israel destroy West Bank schools
it funded</h1>
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali
Abunimah</a></span> <span class="field field-blog">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2017-08-28T17:47:59+00:00">28 August 2017</span></span>
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<p>Dozens of Palestinian children were due to begin
classes in Jubbet al-Dib, a village near Bethlehem,
last week.</p>
<p>But on the evening of 22 August, Israeli occupation
forces destroyed their new school.</p>
<p>It consisted of six prefabricated buildings largely
funded by the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/european-union">European
Union</a> and several of its governments.</p>
<p>During the five-hour assault in Jubbet al-Dib,
Israeli forces declared the area a closed military
zone and used stun grenades, <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=778812">tear
gas and rubber-coated metal bullets</a> to keep
residents away as they dismantled and confiscated the
buildings.</p>
<p>“It was heartbreaking to see children and their
teachers turning up for their first day of school
under the blazing sun, with no classrooms or anywhere
to seek shelter in, while in the immediate vicinity
the work to expand illegal settlements goes on
uninterrupted,” Itay Epshtain of the Norwegian Refugee
Council <a
href="https://www.nrc.no/news/2017/august/israel-demolishes-palestinian-schools-days-before-reopening/">said</a>
after visiting the village.</p>
<p>“The demolition of a school building the night before
the start of the year epitomizes the administrative
cruelty and systematic harassment by authorities
designed to drive Palestinians from their land,” the
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem stated.</p>
<p>An EU spokesperson told The Electronic Intifada on
Monday that the value of the buildings and equipment
seized by Israeli forces in Jubbet al-Dib and earlier
in the Abu Nuwwar community is $37,000 – and that they
were paid for jointly by the EU, Belgium, Denmark,
France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and Sweden.</p>
<p>Earlier in August, Israeli forces <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.806053">confiscated
solar panels</a> that provided electricity to the
kindergarten of the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/abu-nuwwar">Abu
Nuwwar</a> community, located in the so-called <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/e1">E-1</a>
area of the occupied West Bank, where Israel plans to
expand its mega-settlement of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/maaleh-adumim">Maaleh
Adumim</a>.</p>
<h2>Weak EU response</h2>
<p>In a <a
href="https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/palestine-occupied-palestinian-territory-west-bank-and-gaza-strip/31338/local-eu-statement-recent-confiscations-school-structures-occupied-west-bank_en">weakly
worded statement</a> last week, the European Union
expressed its “strong concern” – not even
“condemnation” – about this and other demolitions.</p>
<p>The statement neglected even to mention that the
buildings were funded by European taxpayers.</p>
<p>The EU did, however, mention Israel’s policy of
“designating land for exclusive Israeli use and of
denying Palestinian development” – an indirect
acknowledgement of what others have <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/landmark-un-report-backs-israel-boycott">more
forthrightly and accurately labeled apartheid</a>.</p>
<p>Yet on Monday, the EU confirmed that it is content to
let the destruction pass without any tangible action
to hold Israel accountable.</p>
<p>Asked what the EU planned to do to seek restitution
and accountability from Israel, the spokesperson said:
“The EU has raised these matters publicly and also
privately in its dialogue with the Israeli
authorities.”</p>
<p>That’s diplomatic speak for: we’ve done all we’re
going to do, which amounts to nothing.</p>
<h2>Spate of attacks</h2>
<p>The demolition in Jubbet al-Dib was one of several
recent Israeli attacks on Palestinian schools.</p>
<p>On 21 August, occupation forces raided the
Palestinian Bedouin community of Jabal al-Baba near
the Jerusalem-area village of al-Eizariya and <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=778784">demolished</a>
a prefab building that was to serve as a kindergarten
for about 25 local children who have no other school.</p>
<p>According to B’Tselem, Israeli forces took the desks,
chairs and blackboard – equipment valued at about
$2,800, a large sum for a community with so little.</p>
<p>“The latest spate of school demolitions and
confiscations in the West Bank forms part of a wider
attack on education in Palestine,” the Norwegian
Refugee Council noted.</p>
<p>According to the agency, about 55 schools in the West
Bank are currently threatened with demolition or
so-called “stop work” orders by occupation forces.</p>
<p>Many are located in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/area-c">Area
C</a>, the roughly 60 percent of the West Bank under
full Israeli military control under the Oslo accords
signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization in the early 1990s.</p>
<p>Many of these schools are donor-funded, including by
European Union governments.</p>
<p>“Israel denies the majority of Palestinian planning
permit requests in Area C, thereby leaving
Palestinians with no option but to reconstruct and
develop without permits, while Israeli settlements –
established in violation of international law –
continue to expand,” the Norwegian Refugee Council
stated.</p>
<h2>Massive destruction</h2>
<p>Israel’s destruction of Palestinian infrastructure
funded by international donors is relentless and
systematic.</p>
<p>In recent years, Israel has <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-has-destroyed-74-million-worth-eu-projects">destroyed
at least $74 million</a> worth of EU-funded
projects, including schools, playgrounds and
agricultural initiatives.</p>
<p>Analysts have suggested that EU officials have
downplayed the full extent of Israel’s destruction in
order to avoid embarrassment.</p>
<p>Last year, the Tel Aviv newspaper <em>Haaretz</em>
reported that there was <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.722519">mounting
pressure</a> from European Parliament members on EU
foreign policy chief <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/federica-mogherini">Federica
Mogherini</a> to confront Israel more forcefully
over the matter.</p>
<p>But instead, the EU appears to be intensifying its
unconditional support for Israel. A high-level
official recently pledged EU support for Israel’s
efforts to silence criticism of its policies, under
the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/eu-pledges-help-israel-suppress-criticism">guise
of fighting anti-Semitism</a>.</p>
<p>EU officials also <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/eu-spreads-lies-about-israel-boycott">continue</a>
to smear the nonviolent boycott, divestment and
sanctions movement with <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/why-eu-anti-semitism-chief-smearing-solidarity">claims
that the EU cannot substantiate</a> that BDS
activities have led to a rise in anti-Semitic
incidents.</p>
<p>The EU also continues to fund Israeli <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-eu-funding-israeli-torturers">torturers</a>
and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/eu-funds-firm-supplying-israel-banned-cluster-weapons">arms
makers</a>.</p>
<h2>Empty words</h2>
<p>In July, Israel <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-1.798792">confiscated</a>
solar and diesel electricity generating equipment in
Jubbet al-Dib donated by the Netherlands and valued at
hundreds of thousands of dollars.</p>
<p>The Dutch government sent Israel a letter protesting
the move, saying it was “currently assessing what next
steps can be taken.”</p>
<p><em>Haaretz</em> <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-1.798792">reported</a>
that “these softly worded statements cover the anger
brewing in the government of the Netherlands, a close
friend of Israel’s, at the damage to the humanitarian
project.”</p>
<p>And in the wake of the demolition in Jubbet al-Dib
this month, the Belgian government let its anger be
known.</p>
<p>“These new demolitions and seizures of essential
infrastructure are unacceptable,” the country’s
foreign minister Didier Reynders and development
minister Alexander De Croo said in a <a
href="http://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/didier-reynders-and-alexander-de-croo-condemn-demolition">joint
statement</a>.</p>
<p>“By undermining such humanitarian projects, Israel
contravenes its international obligations as an
occupying power, in particular the Fourth Geneva
Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War,” the Belgian government added.</p>
<p>Strong words indeed, but followed by soothing
reassurances to Israel that it need fear no
consequences.</p>
<p>“Explanations as well as compensation will be
demanded from the Israeli government,” the ministers
said. “Belgium is not the only international donor
affected by this kind of destruction. It will continue
to work together with its partners, as in the past, to
ask the Israeli authorities to end these demolitions.”</p>
<p>There is no hint of what Belgium might do if Israel
ignores its polite requests, but if the past is a
guide, it will – like the EU – do absolutely nothing.</p>
<h2>Slap us again</h2>
<p>“The destruction of educational structures funded by
European money is not just a violation of
international law,” said the Norwegian Refugee
Council’s Palestine director Hanibal Abiy Worku. “It
is also a slap in the face to the international
community providing aid to the occupied Palestinian
population in a bid to ensure safe places of learning
for children.”</p>
<p>With their inaction, the EU and its member
governments are once again sending Israel a very clear
message: please slap us and our taxpaying citizens
again, and keep on destroying the schools and lives of
Palestinians.</p>
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