Settlement construction activities to isolate Israel: EU envoy

The Israeli regime “will find itself increasingly isolated,” if it continues illegal settlement construction, a European Union envoy says.

EU Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen said in a press conference on Wednesday that continuing the settlement projects could lead to failure in talks between Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Authority.

“If Israel were to go down the road of continued settlement expansion…I am afraid that what will transpire is a situation where Israel finds itself increasingly isolated,” said Faaborg-Andersen.

The EU ambassador referred to the boycott of Israeli products by European countries, saying that Tel Aviv could face isolation “not necessarily because of any decisions taken at a government level, but because of decisions taken by a myriad of private economic actors, be it companies, be it pension funds, be it consumers who will be choosing other product on the supermarket shelves.”

Meanwhile, a global campaign is underway to boycott Israeli products in an effort to put an end to construction of illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.

The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.