Mr.

John Gatt Rutter The Representative European Union Representative Office for the West Bank, Gaza Strip and UNRWA

EU Partnership for Peace program: Unethical abuse of Palestinian vulnerability for dubious political objectives Open letter to the EU delegation and diplomatic missions in occupied Palestine

Palestinian civil society organizations including, Palestinian NGOs, unions and community organizations working to protect the social, economic, cultural, civil and political rights of the Palestinian people, are deeply dismayed by the recent call for proposals to the EU Partnership for Peace program. We protest in the strongest terms against the unethical manner in which the call for this EU program conditions that eligible projects of humanitarian and development aid must involve Jews and Arabs, and suggests that aid to the most vulnerable Palestinian communities should be instrumentalized for a peace defined as maintaining the viability of the Two State solution.1 Palestinians, as civilians under military occupation and victims of systematic Israeli violations of their human rights, have an unconditional right to protection and assistance. This right and the corresponding obligations of States are codified in international law and humanitarian principles. The conditioning of provision of such aid with the participation of a provider belonging to a particular ethnic group contravenes the standards of international law, humanitarian principles and ethics. The particular attempt of the EU to condition aid to the most vulnerable Palestinian populations with the participation of Jewish Israel actors, i.e., members of the group of oppressors, contributes to the politicization of aid and is especially problematic and unacceptable in this context. Palestinian civil society concurs with the assessment of the EU that peace based on a two-state solution has become deeply undermined. However, in this regard we reiterate our position that no peace will be achieved, unless the international diplomatic community is willing to create and the political framework required for ending Israels prolonged occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people, and that the required political framework must, more than anything else, ensure respect of international humanitarian and human rights law by Israel, other States and interstate organizations such as the EU. In this context, we recall the numerous evaluations of peace programs , such as the EUs People to People and Partnership for Peace, which have concluded that bottom-up civil society initiatives are doomed to be ineffective as long as the diplomatic community fails to perform its role and responsibilities. Based on the above, Palestinian civil society urges the European Union to respect the right of Palestinians to dignified and unconditional support of their human rights and humanitarian needs.
1

Guidelines for grant applicants, EuropeAid/133-831/L/ACT/PMO, p. 5, at: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/onlineservices/index.cfm?do=publi.welcome&nbPubliList=15&orderby=upd&orderbyad=Desc&searchtype=RS&aofr= 133831

We call upon the EU to avoid further politicization of humanitarian aid and immediately remove the unethical condition of participation of Jews and Arabs from the eligibility criteria of the Partnership for Peace program. We also urge the EU and its members to prioritize efforts for creating the legal and political framework required for peace by implementing the recommendations of the ICJ advisory opinion of 2004. As a first and long-overdue step, we call upon the EU and member States to ban products and companies involved in the illegal Israeli settlement enterprise in occupied Palestinian territory from European markets.

Occupied Jerusalem, 29 January 2013 The Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network The Civic National Commission in Jerusalem. The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC).

Copies to (c.c): Mss. Catherine Ashton: Ambassador, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security policy. Mr. Andrew Standley: Ambassador, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the State of Israel. Mss. Joanna Wronecka: Ambassador, Head of the Delegation of the European Uion to the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. The diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.