Mon 08 May 2023:
The EU delegation in Israel has cancelled its Europe Day diplomatic reception over the planned participation of far-right Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir.
“Regrettably, this year we have decided to cancel the diplomatic reception as we do not want to offer a platform to someone whose views contradict the values the EU stands for,” the delegation said in a Twitter post on Monday.
Brussels marks May 9 as Europe Day, honouring a 1950 French declaration that led to the founding of the body that became the EU. The remainder of the public event is to take place as scheduled.
The EU delegation’s protest in Israel against Ben-Gvir – a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the most religious and ultranationalist in Israeli history – could spark a diplomatic clash between Israel and the EU.
Relations have already strained due to Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank.
On Tuesday, Ben-Gvir, the leader of the far-right Jewish Power faction, was appointed to represent the Israeli government at the Europe Day ceremony.
As the government’s representative at the Europe Day event, Ben-Gvir would have addressed attendees.
“It’s a shame that the EU, which pretends to represent democratic values and multiculturalism, behaves with undiplomatic gagging,” Ben-Gvir said.
The Palestinian Authority said her comment is an “anti-Palestinian racist trope” and the day instead marks 75 years of Israel’s “colonial project”.
Israel has long denied the forced expulsions of Palestinians during that time, in which the newly formed Israeli army and Zionist militias expelled at least 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and land and captured 78 percent of historic Palestine.
Netanyahu returned to office in December at the head of a coalition that includes ultra-Orthodox parties and religious ultranationalists, including Ben-Gvir’s small Jewish Power faction.
The government has made expansion of West Bank settlements a top priority. The EU, along with most of the international community, considers Jewish settlements in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem illegal under international law and obstacles to peace with the Palestinians.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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