Israeli Group Urges Brexit over EU West Bank Policies
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Israeli pro-settlement group is campaigning for Britain to leave the EU to punish it for what it says is its pro-Palestinian stance, one of its officials said.
Regavim is a right-wing NGO that supports Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, though they are considered illegal under international law and major stumbling blocks to peace as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.
Its campaign includes a mock video of a masked Palestinian purportedly from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip urging UK citizens to remain in the European Union because it supports the Palestinians. It also highlights EU financing of Palestinian structures in the West Bank.
Meir Deutsch, director of policy and government relations for Regavim, said the NGO wanted to harm the EU over its “intervention in the internal conflict here between Israel and the Palestinians,” AFP reported.
Some 60 percent of the West Bank is under Israeli control and Palestinians face extremely difficult odds in receiving building permits in those areas. Israel has regularly demolished projects in the West Bank financed by The EU.
The mock video posted by Regavim on its campaign website shows masked fighters with the logo of Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and in the background a line in English that reads: “Hamas wants UK to stay in the EU.”
Britain’s EU referendum will be held Thursday.