European envoys protest West Bank land appropriation

Five European diplomats formally protested on Monday last week’s land appropriation decision in the Etzion Bloc south of Jerusalem.

In a joint message given to National Security Advisor Yossi Cohen in a meeting in the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday, the ambassadors of the UK, France, Spain and Italy, and the deputy ambassador of Germany, noted their governments’ displeasure at the declaration of nearly 4,000 dunams in the West Bank settlement bloc as state land, the Haaretz daily reported on Tuesday.

“We gave him a clear message that it was a very bad decision, in a terrible timing and that we hope it will be reversed,” one European diplomat said.

Cohen responded that the government faced heavy political pressures within the coalition to increase settlement construction, according to Haaretz.

One diplomat told the paper that Cohen insisted the appropriation was not irreversible, and Palestinians harmed by the decision could file objections to it over the next month. Cohen did not suggest Israel would acquiesce to European or American calls to reverse the decision.

The army’s Civil Administration said the decision came from the political echelon. The US and many European powers harshly condemned the decision.