WIESENTHAL CENTER SAYS EU CALL TO SPLIT JERUSALEM IRRESPONSIBLE AND A BLOW TO CHANCES FOR PEACE

December 11, 2009

WIESENTHAL CENTER SAYS EU CALL TO SPLIT JERUSALEM IRRESPONSIBLE AND A BLOW TO CHANCES FOR PEACE
Center asks, ‘Will EU endorse a three state solution?’

The Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized a European Union draft resolution that would call for a division of Jerusalem and charged a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian State would be irresponsible and a blow to any chances for peace.

“Once again the EU is rushing with a laundry list of what’s expected from Israel, but when will the European Union finally demand action from the Palestinians?” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Center’s associate dean in a protest to Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose nation serves as the current rotating EU President. For how can you have a two state solution with a virtual third Hamas state dedicated to Israel’s destruction? “After all, the Palestinian Authority is no longer a factor on the ground in Gaza and President Abbas has unable to even step foot there for more than five years. Would the EU therefore endorse a three-state solution?”

That would be a non-starter, they wrote in a December 4th protest, because “most Israelis endorse the goal of a two-state solution—but few would be willing to endorse a three-state solution.”

In their letter, the Center officials also expressed alarm at a classified document prepared for the EU that recommended sanctions against Israelis involved in “settlement activity” in the vicinity of the Holy City and especially focusing on Jewish archaeological sites in the Holy City, saying that “Archaeology in this case has become an ideological motivated tool of national and religious struggle….”

“Mr. Prime Minister—archaeological projects in Sweden help trace the historic roots and bonds between the people of your country, your land and your history,” wrote Rabbi Hier and Rabbi Cooper, noting that the case could be made for every EU member-state. “Why then protest such activity in and around the Holy City of Jerusalem? Could it be because these archaeological findings confirm the 3,000-year old historic roots and ties of the Jewish people to Jerusalem at the very time that Palestinian leaders continue to serially deny these facts to their people?”

“Mr. Minister, like you, the Simon Wiesenthal Center yearns for a day that there will be peace between the Palestinians and Israelis,” said the rabbis. “But that day will never be hastened by helping to fuel delusional denials of a 3,500-year Jewish narrative in the Holy Land.”

We urge the European Union to undertake policies that will strengthen Palestinians committed to live in peace alongside the Jewish Democratic State of Israel,” they concluded.

A copy of the letter has been sent to all 349 members of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag), officials at all 27 EU member states, and to United Nations delegates.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).


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