The European Union put out a carefully worded but clearly critical statement on the new Israeli boycott law on Wednesday, saying it intended to “discuss this matter and raise our concerns with the Israeli authorities.\”\n
The European Union of Jewish Students was awarded the European Union European Citizen\’s Prize.
The European Union expanded its sanctions against Syria and Iran. The new sanctions imposed Monday target Syrian leader Bashar Assad and other top Syrian officials, and designate an additional 100 Iranian individuals and entities believed to be fronting for Iran\’s nuclear weapons program.
The European Union approved an extra $124 million in emergency aid to the Palestinians to supplement tax moneys frozen by Israel. \”It is important that access to essential public services remains uninterrupted and the right to social services is respected,\” Reuters on Friday quoted Catherine Ashton, the E.U. foreign policy chief, as saying.
A European Parliament committee has approved a bill that would require meat that was not stunned before slaughter to be labeled as such. The amendment to the new European Union food labeling bill passed the Environmental and Consumer Affairs Committee by a vote of 34 to 28. The meat would be labeled “unstunned before slaughter.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering withdrawing Israeli troops from the West Bank, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported. Tuesday\’s report comes a day after Netanyahu said during a meeting with the ambassadors of European Union countries that he believes there is little chance of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians resuming anytime soon, and that he is considering what actions to take if negotiations are not resumed.
The European Union approved wide-ranging sanctions against Libya as world leaders urged Moammar Ghadafi to step down. Sanctions levied Monday following a meeting in Geneva include an arms embargo, a visa ban and a freeze on Libyan assets.
With anti-Semitism on the rise more than six decades after the liberation of Auschwitz, Europe should be fighting harder against hate, Moshe Kantor said. Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, who spoke Tuesday in Brussels at a Holocaust remembrance ceremony hosted by the E.U. Parliament, brought this message personally to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, current president of the E.U. Council.
Ireland became the first European Union member to upgrade its Palestinian diplomatic mission to an embassy. The head of the Palestinian mission will become an ambassador in Dublin and will present his credentials to the Irish president, according to Ynet. The upgrade reportedly does not mean that Ireland has recognized a Palestinian state.
The European Union will not recognize Palestinian statehood until an \”appropriate\” time, its Foreign Affairs Council said in a statement.
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