Israeli Brits want EU to fund protection from Gaza rockets
Fourteen British claimants are suing the European Union for the cost of rocket-proofing their homes.
By Cnaan Liphshiz Tags: Hamas Gaza Israel newsA group of U.K. citizens living in the northern Negev is demanding the European Union shoulder the cost of making their homes rocket-proof and stop funding Hamas, in a precedent-setting lawsuit recently filed against the EU.
The 14 British claimants and one Italian national joined their names this week to a lawsuit filed last month to the European Commission. As reported first by Haaretz, the suit by petitioner Eyal Katorza, a French national from Sderot, cited Article 3.5 of the European Treaty which states the Union will "contribute to the protection of its citizens" regardless of their whereabouts.
The EU "owes its citizens protection and security whether they reside in the European Union or abroad in a third state," Mordechai M. Tzivin, Katorza's lawyer, wrote. If the commission does not uphold the suit, it will be filed in 12 months time to the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg.
Among other clauses, the eight-page document also notes Article 20 of the treaty, which states that when outside the union, EU citizens are "entitled to protection by the diplomatic or consular authorities of any member State."
The lawsuit also demands that the EU ensure its funds don't reach terrorist entities, such as Hamas, that will then use the money to harm EU citizens living in Israel. "The European Union gives hundreds of millions of euros every year to aid groups in Gaza," Tzivin said. "This money cannot be allowed to target European citizens."
Tzivin coordinated the lawsuit with the European Citizens Council in Israel, a nonprofit organization representing Israelis of EU nationalities.
The man who brought the British claimants and the Italian on board Tzivin's lawsuit is linguist and author Elihu Shannon, 58, who immigrated to Israel from Wallasey near Liverpool some 40 years ago. He was responding to the call by Tzivin, inviting any EU passport holder living within range of Palestinian rockets to join.
"For me, the main issue in this lawsuit was the demand to prevent and stop EU funds from reaching Hamas," says Shannon, whose family lives in the house nearest to the Gaza Strip in Kibbutz Sa'ad, situated less than four kilometers east of the Gaza Strip.
The European Union last year provided Gaza with $55.6 million in humanitarian aid. In addition, EU member states pledged more than $41 million, including $10.5 million from the British government's Department for International Development. Israel has also supplied Hamas-controlled Gaza with Israeli commodities.
"Hamas is a criminal militant organization which also views itself as responsible for Gazans," Shannon said. "The organization has to balance these two roles. That means that any money that it receives for humanitarian aid frees up resources for continuing its declared war on Jews. Meaning, our government [the British government] is helping an organization carry out its racist fight to kill us."
Some of the British nationals Shannon got together live in Kibutz Alumim, just south of Sa'ad and four kilometers from the Gaza Strip.
In December, a Qassam rocket exploded inside the yard of the Sa'ad home of the Italian claimant, the Florence-born author and Holocaust survivor Susanna Evron Cassuto. "The explosion caused at least NIS 60,000 in damages," she says.
"The [compensation] money is not the issue here, really," says Cassuto. "I am an Italian passport holder and I want the Italian government to honor its obligation to ensure my right to life," she told Anglo File. "I want my government in Rome to do everything it can to prevent its money from reaching the people who are trying to murder me."
A spokesperson for the European Citizens Council in Israel, which initiated the lawsuit, said European attorneys who reviewed the case said it had "very big chance" of being upheld.
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"...the EC will have no choice to put a travel ban on people travelling to Israel". Have you ever heard of Democracy and freedom to travel? I can think of two reasons for your ignorance in democratic procedure: either you have been raised in the defunct Soviet Union or your sympathy for terrorism and especially the Hamas terrorists blurs your logic.
why doesn't the EU fund the repatriation of foreigners, squatting in Palestinian territories, back to wherever?
*you can actually be a dual citizen in Israel, so it sounds reasonable that EU should help with what is needed. *they didn't choose to have violent and threatening neighbours. *care for palestinians is sent, without them being EU citizens, so ...?
Typical, Israel always wants someone else to fight ther battles for them.
This lawsuit will easily and quickly be settled out of court by the EU. They will just offer to pay for flight tickets back to whatever countries in Europe these people originally came from. This will be their quick solution to secure these peoples safety and they would be abiding by the clauses set out in Article 3.5 of the European Treaty
that these people who have lived in Israel for 40 years gave up their British citizenship. They've had long enough to decide where their loyalties lie, obviously in the Middle Eastern country they have made their home.
Any EU money going to Israel is directly or indirectly being used to blockade and murder people in Gaza. If this lawsuit succeeds surely the relatives of the Palestinian children killed and injured in Gaza can take a case.
The rockets fired from gaza is a symptom, just as the more numerous and deadlier israel bombs and shell's fired at gaza are. The disease is Israel's unwillingness to comply with UN resolutions, calling for a full withdrawal to the 1967 borders, while removing all the illegal settlements.
So the EU guarantees the 'right of life', which includes protection of its citizens. So does the US, and it is also included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was adopted by the UN General Assembly. But that doesn't mean any of those nations are expected to give (or pay for) bunkers or air defences for their citizens, if they decide to go and live in a warzone. This also goes both ways, of course. If we're liable to ensure protection from air-attacks then we'd likely have to pay for this in the occupied territories as well, if EU citizens live there. They may however be entitled to an airlift out of the area.
simple
So if Israel cant be bothered to keep its part why should EU? I hope they loose and pay the EU court costs
...and have people thinking about throwing EU-passports at any unappreciative passer-by....
the European Community will have no choice to put a travel ban on people travelling to Israel. Then if people from the EU do go to Israel it will be at their own risk. So what you say? Well for one people will no longer be able to get travel insurance. How many tourists from the EU visit Israel each year? I don't think these dual nationals have thought it through. Mind you with that second passport, if they are affected by it they can always go back to their country of origin.
if you need your safety then go back to your EU or you just need it for benefit. if there is a war in israel tomorrow, you will be the first one to pack your stuff. what a bunch of hypocrits.
... since I was beginning to get the impression from Talkback that the EU (especially Brits) were solidly behind Hamas and their rocket program. There is only one way to ensure that EU donations will reach the Gaza people, instead of funding more rockets or ending up in numbered Swiss accounts. And that is to shovel it into the crowds off the back of a truck.
So, if the EU protects the EU citizens in Sderot and the EU citizens in Gaza then we may have a little peace going on here.
I would like to personally congratulate the British, French and Italian dual citizens for their brave lawsuit. I think this suit places responsibility back on the EU and personalizes the situation of rash behavior on the part of the EU in supporting Hamas or international efforts during the Gaza War that have pinned the blame on Israel for all that has gone wrong, when, in fact, aid to the Palestinians (in particular Hamas) is visibly impacting EU citizens living in Israel, and the EU has a moral and civic responsibility to protect the interests of its citizens (dual nationals or not).