European diplomates in Jerusalem and Ramallah are calling on the EU to recognise East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state and to impose unprecedented sanctions on Israel The Israeli daily Haaretz said on Monday that European diplomats, mainly consuls, recently sent a strongly worded report demanding pragmatic responses to Israel's unlawful practices in East Jerusalem. They also requested that sanctions be imposed on the Israeli state until it amends its behaviour towards Jerusalem's Palestinians. The sanctions recommended that European officials refuse to visit Israeli government offices located in occupied Palestinian territories acquired in the 1967 war. It was also proposed that European envoys refuse protection from Israeli security firms in Jerusalem and the Old City. The consuls strongly called for the boycott of settlement products in European markets which include products manufactured in illegal settlements in Jerusalem. They urged a policy which would deny “violent" Israeli settlers from entering European Union countries. The diplomats recommended that pressure be applied to Israel until it reopens Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) offices in Jerusalem and allows its members to return to work. The report enumerated several rights violations Israel has made and continues to make in East Jerusalem. These included settlement building and expansions, demolitions, discrimination and unequal access to education and infrastructural deficiency. Israel's policy in Jerusalem – namely its attempts to weaken the Palestinian presence – has serious repercussions, the report added, pointing towards the government's complicity with various Jewish groups aiming to Judaise Jerusalem. The report considered governmental cooperation with local groups in activities such as digging in Silwan proof of the government's connivance in settlement activities. Furthermore, the recent passage of a law, requiring a majority approval by the Knesset before any official withdrawal from Jerusalem, has made the likelihood of a peaceful resolution ever bleaker.
