OPPOSING VIEWS ON THE GOLAN HEIGHTS

EU: We do not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights

By Tovah Lazaroff

The Jerusalem Post
March 27, 2019

All 28 European Union member states have rejected the United Sates recognition of Israel’s 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights from Syria.

US President Donald Trump signed that declaration in Washington this week, during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House.

But the move, has been widely rejected by the international community.

“The position of the European Union as regards the status of the Golan Heights has not changed. In line with the international law an UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 497, the EU does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights,” the EU member states said in a short statement issued on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the five European Union member of the Security Council also issued a statement against the move, explaining that it did not recognize Israeli sovereignty over any territory Israel captured during the Six-Day War in 1967.

“Annexation of territory by force is prohibited under international law. Any declaration of a unilateral border change goes against the foundation of the rules-based international order and the UN Charter.

“We raise our strong concerns about the broader consequences of recognizing illegal annexation and also about the broader regional consequences,” the European members of the UNSC said. This included; France, Great Britain, Belgium, Germany and Poland.

Acting US Ambassador to the United Nations Jonathan Cohen defended the move, explaining that any peace agreement wold have to address Israel’s security needs in the Golan Heights.

“To allow the Golan Heights to be controlled by the likes of the Syrian and Iranian regimes would turn a blind eye to the atrocities of the Assad regime and malign and destabilizing presence of Iran in the region,” Cohen said.

In Washington State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters that if Israel withdrew from the Golan, it would be used as a launching ground for attacks against Israel.

Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan enhances Israel’s security “which strengthens, frankly, our ability to partner with Israel to fight the common threats that we face,” Palladino said.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US decision was not an attempt to make a statement with regard to the acquisition of territory during times of war.

Rather, he explained it is an assessment of Israel’s unique security situation. Israel should not be asked to commit suicide to be compliance with a UN resolution, he said.

“This is an incredibly unique situation. Israel was fighting a defensive battle to save its nation, and it cannot be the case that a UN resolution is a suicide pact. It simply can’t be, and that’s the reality that President Trump recognized in his executive order yesterday,” Pompeo said.
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Israeli politicians to EU: “Shame on you” for opposing Golan sovereignty

By Tovah Lazaroff

Israeli right-wing politicians lashed back at the European Union for its “shameful” rejection of Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights, calling its 28 nations “peace refuseniks.”

“Minutes ago the EU announced that it would not recognize the Golan Heights as part of the state of Israel,” Far Right Party head and Education Minister Naftali Bennett said in a video message he posted on Twitter.

“We could add to that the fact that the EU does not recognize Jerusalem as our capital,” he wrote, adding “Shame on you.”

“The Golan heights and Jerusalem and the Land of Israel has been the home of the Jewish people thousands of years before France was the home of the French and the United Kingdom the home of the British,” Bennett said.

“So we will continue building our amazing country. We will continue defending the free world from radical Islam, even though you do not deserve it,” Bennett said.

Kulanu Party head and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said, “We now allow those who keep the Iranian terror regime’s economy afloat to preach morality to us. Israel will not be held hostage by peace refuseniks and the policies of the Axis of Evil,” Kahlon said.

“The whole world knows that the Golan Heights is an inseparable part of the Land of Israel and the State of Israel,” Kahlon said.

Meretz Party head MK Tamar Zandberg said, “Trump's election gift to Bibi has started to cost us dearly. Now the EU is clarifying its position on the Golan Heights. Why did these demons have to be awaken on a subject that was not even on the table?”

“Instead of making needless statements on the Golan Trump should publish his peace plan so that each party can relate to,” she said.

But when it comes to “peace” and “Bibi,” she said, “there isn’t even anything to mention.”