On last 31 July 2012 I questioned the EU, via the contact form on their website, about their policies regarding Palestine. My main issue was the continued financial support given to the PA despite the increase in “honor killings” of women and despite the increasing and apparent for everybody to see grave abuses of human rights of the Palestinians in the West Bank and the criminal behavior of the PA and their proteges. I received an astonishing answer from them via Email, which I share and comment below. According to the EU
“President Mahmoud Abbas is not a criminal – he is the President of the Palestinian Authority and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and recognised as such by the entire international community, including Israel.”
This is wrong in several ways. Abbas is the de-facto “President” of the PA and PLO. He was elected in the elections of 2006 as President, and his term expired on January 19 2008 according to the Palestinian constitution. So seen, Abbas is not the President of anything but a self-appointed dictator with no constituency beyond the goons paid by the EU and USA, and the people surrounding him have taken actions apt to remind Palestinians every day since 2006 that they are nothing but criminals. The point in the disingenuous answer of the EU is exactly this: Abbas and his co-perpetrators are imposing criminal and genocidal policies upon the Palestinians on behalf of israel and an “international community” subservient to zionist interests. (Read about Abbas wealth).The individuals who comprise this so-called “international community” are often
described in their countries of origin with endearing terms such as incompetents, criminals, psychopaths among others. This illustrates the American saying, birds of a feather flock together.
So it is also no surprise that the EU, as part of that “international community” of lawless bumblers, would disregard its own laws.
For example, article 2 of the EU-Israel association agreement states that the human rights situation must be taken into account in deals between the EU and israel. This has apparently never happened, because the last EU representative who dared to criticize israels extermination policies towards us Palestinians,
Anna Lindh was murdered by the “crazy loner” who always appears on scene when jewish interests are in peril of defeat.
The EU sends gifts of hundreds of millions of Euros each year, on the back of increasingly impoverished European tax payers, to the PA regime, to protégès of the PA, to elements of the occupation and to a gaggle of jewish groups cashing in big money on the back of Palestinian misery. These hundreds of millions of Euros flow despite the deteriorated and deteriorating financial situation across the EU, due to a storm of financial destruction unleashed by irresponsible EU policies which has ravaged all European countries.
Even if Abbas is the “President” of the Palestinian Authority and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and “recognized as such by the entire international community, including Israel”, this does not relieve him of charges of financial and administrative corruption.
It is very clear that the EU donations reach ONLY a certain class of the Palestinians. Among the beneficiaries of the EU largesse are the President Abbas himself and his family, the other higher-ups in the PA and the PLO and their respective families, and assorted collaborators.
- How does the EU explain, for example, what it means that President Abbas spends five million Euros monthly for the expenses of his house and family, and another five million Euros as travel expenses?
- And how does the EU explain the causes of extreme poverty affecting beyond 70% of Palestinians while Abbas and his coterie of knaves and fat cats live in unimaginable luxury in Ramallah?
I am sure that the EU will find some disingenuous, barefaced lie to plausibly deny any connection between their largesse towards the PA and the misery affecting Palestinians in the West Bank, despite the stream of visitors from the EU to Ramallah who witness this shame.
- Will the EU state in yet another anonymous communiqué that all Palestinians live the same luxurious life like the PA elements?
To be clear, the EU policy towards Palestine is no exception. Just as they support Abbas, they
support the groups of criminals who ousted Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak (whom they bankrolled while they found him useful), and the same goes for the ousted dictator of Tunisia, the murdered dictator of Libya, and the (still) supported dictator of Syria, together with the gangs of criminals and terrorists whom they support, for show, against these dictators.
The EU says in their answer that Abbas is not a criminal. The EU is constantly complaining about those criminals who, they say, are the heads of states and governments of other peoples. Of course, those are thieves, dictators, criminals and murderers, but what the EU conveniently omits to say is that these scoundrels were propped up by them.
Now the EU is doing the same in Palestine in favour of Israel, to lengthen the age of the Israeli occupation in my homeland, to strengthen its economy while you are destroying the economy of the EU and what remains of Palestine.
- Of course, how could anybody dare to call a thief among thieves, a miserable traitor and tyrant bankrolled by the EU a criminal?
Criminals are only the others, the cleptocracies who the EU does not prop up or where the role of the EU propping them up is not so blatant.
Yes, the EU and the “international community” recognized “President” Abbas and his tinpot ministerial cabinet only because he enforces zionist policies in Palestine and protects israel.
On account of this, the EU can no longer be said to respect human rights as per its own constitution, passed against the will of the majority of the EU population. What makes
the EU policies criminal is something called “terra nullius”, a set of policies of the british empire declaring pieces of land they coveted as empty of people – what allowed them to genocide anybody in their way because these peoples “would have died off anyway”.
This kind of policy is criminal in current international law and is exactly what zionism amounts to: genocide under a mantle of legality, and this is what the EU, impersonated by the very British Catherine Ashton is supporting with diplomatic and pecuniary largesse towards Abbas and his cronies. The EU further states in their answer to my questions:
Although it is not clear what exactly you are referring to by “increased number of killing women in Palestine”, you can be assured that the European Union (EU) monitors closely the situation of women’s rights throughout the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) and finances a number of projects supporting women’s rights there. Human rights violations in the oPt – including those against women – are addressed in the regular bilateral dialogue between the EU and the Palestinian Authority within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy and concerns related to human rights are also raised at the highest political level.
Regarding the misunderstanding of the EU regarding the “increased number of killing women in Palestine”, during the last weeks of July 2012 several women were murdered in Palestine for reasons of “honor”. Below are the only few cases which have made it to the media:
Nancy Zboon who was killed in the Al-Madbase St. in Bethlehem
The murder and violent abuse of women has increased in Palestine during the last years to the point of becoming a modern way of life under the full protection of the Palestinian National Authority. The crimes are perpetrated by the families of these women and girls. At the same time the PA insists in protecting the criminals, firstly by keeping in place laws which legalize crimes against women and institutionalize the discrimination of women, and secondly by actively covering up these crimes whenever they are discovered.
In the West Bank and Gaza there are no laws that forbid women from being murdered or prosecute their murderers. The Egyptian laws that are implemented in Gaza and the Jordanian Laws implemented in the West Bank discriminate between men and women, and protect the murderers of women. “Honor” has become a justification for murdering women and protecting the murderers, as well as keeping the power in the hands of the men who lead the society and impede women from reaching power. This state of affairs is a clear threat for all women who seek equality with men in their rights.
The Palestinian media covers up the crimes against women committed under the “honor” label. They write very briefly about them without releasing further details. In this way, the media protects the criminals in the Palestinian authoritarian patriarchal society and abet the continuing of the shameful practice of “honor” murders in our society.
These crimes are banned from public discussion and publication, because it is a societal tabu but mostly because the PA receives money from western countries, and the donors could not justify the largesse at home if these crimes became more widely known. In all cases, these crimes are treated in a way that will cover up the perpetrators, protecting and helping them to continue perpetrating more crimes, and by punishing the victims (women, minors, girls) or killing them in so-called “honor” killings.I would be more than happy to receive any recommendation from the EU which would help stop these vile crimes, and any such recommendations would remain off-the-record and will hopefully help to better protect the victims in the future.
The EU continues in their answer
Human rights violations in the oPt – including those against women – are addressed in the regular bilateral dialogue between the EU and the Palestinian Authority within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy and concerns related to human rights are also raised at the highest political level.
The dialogue between the EU and PA concerning human rights and women rights is not enough. The Palestinian Authority MUST END the LAWS which protect the practice of murdering women in Palestine NOW. The Palestinian minister of justice is aware of these issues as I called his attention to this during a UN conference here in Vienna several years ago, before representatives of EU countries. The minister promised to become active, but nothing has happened until now, 3-4 years later.
There are many reports of sexual harassment of PA higher-ups being against women, both employees of the PA and not. Several of these women have reportedly been murdered in order to protect the perpetrators. Also, this knowledge that there are many PA elements involved in sexual harassment and abuse of women people is why the PA does not want to change the laws which discriminate against women and protect their murderers and abusers.
To illustrate the state of affairs regarding womens rights in Palestine, a personal story.
According to my knowledge, Samir Aoudeh, the husband of my sister who is of profession a PA security element, one of the people whose monthly salary is paid with EU money, used to have a brothel behind the back of my sister. He had married a second wife and forced her to sell her favours to his military friends. This continued until one of the clients, an officer of the PA intelligence (from the Al Zaro family in Hebron) made a sex film and posted it on the Internet.
The family of the girl discovered the video and, in order to save the family honour, cut her head and and hung it on the electricity wires before their home. To my knowledge both these PA elements are free until today and continue working for the PA to this day.
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Mr. Hussein Al-Sheikh is the so-called “Minister of Civil Affairs” of the Palestinian Authority, a senior Fatah member and the man charged with keeping the coordination between the colonial israeli military administration in Beit Il and the PA. Using his lucky position, Mr. Al-Sheikh commits crimes of sexual molestation and abuse against women, often employees of the PNA.
