EU shamelessly interfering with Israeli democracy - Sara Ha'etzni-Cohen

 

​ by Sara Ha'etzni-Cohen

The Swiss are pouring millions into obtaining Israeli security records, the Europeans are helping the Palestinians assert their presence in Jerusalem, and Germany is perpetuating the Nakba narrative. To what end?

Over the past five years, Europe has invested 300 million shekels ($90 million) into Israeli non-governmental organizations. This might seem like a good thing at first until one delves deeper into the purposefully complex documents that detail how exactly Europe allocates its investments and how they alter the very core of Israeli society.

Let's take a look at the hottest issue at this time: the International Criminal Court and its investigation into Israel's "war crimes." It so happens to be that Europe is the one who financially supports the Palestinian organizations that are at the forefront of the prosecution. Moreover, it finances the pro-Palestinian Israeli NGOs, like Breaking the Silence, Adalah, B'Tselem, and Yesh Din, who are putting together documents to help the ICC prepare for its investigation.

Unfortunately, The Hague is not the only one "investing" in Israel this way. Governments across the continent are interfering with the home demolitions of terrorists as well, a move that was meant to prevent more terror attacks. In 2018 alone, the government of Switzerland transferred NIS1 million ($300,000) to an Israeli organization to impede the demolition of the homes of the terrorists who murdered Raziel Shevach, Adiel Coleman, Ronen Lubarsky, and others.

One grant from the European Union was meant to ban IDF soldiers from entering Palestinian homes during military operations. To hell with the soldiers' safety.

The Swiss government is pouring millions into obtaining Israeli security records, the European Union is setting up associations in Jerusalem to preserve the Palestinian identity of the capital, Germany is perpetuating the narrative of the Nakba ("catastrophe") of Israel's inception, and Denmark busies itself with presenting Israel as an apartheid state. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The pattern is clear: a European country chooses a goal, the government writes a fat check to an NGO in Israel or abroad to do the job, the organization gathers information and returns to the mothership to report.

There's a difference between a government supporting a cause versus an individual. A governmental investment reflects the perspective of the entire nation.

Ahead of the election, we must ask ourselves, how is such interference considered legal in Israel? Would the Jewish state ever dare conduct itself this way in Europe? That would never fly.

In proper governments, there are straightforward legal ways to act in such cases. When Israel wanted to appeal the law that banned circumcision and kosher slaughter in Europe, it could do so in a transparent diplomatic way without financing European organizations to do this for them.

Europe is intervening in our lives and is having a hell of a good time. They have been doing it for years, but for some reason, our leadership is scared to stand up to the great continent.

Let this be a goal for the next elected government: to establish a parliamentary inquiry committee to investigate the European government's intervention into Israeli democracy.

 

Sara Ha'etzni-Cohen  

Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/eu-shamelessly-interfering-with-israeli-democracy/ 

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