Settler group accuses EU envoy of supporting ‘terror state’
In video, ‘Jerusalem Periphery Forum’ shows ambassador Faaborg-Andersen in Hannibal Lecter mask, slams EU housing aid to Palestinians
A settler group on Sunday released a video that accused the European Union’s ambassador to Israel of working to “establish a terror state.”
The video accuses Lars Faaborg-Andersen, the Danish head of the EU’s delegation in Israel, of “undermining Israel’s sovereignty, ignoring the law, building wherever he wants and establishing a terror state — on Route 1!” The group was apparently referring to prefabricated homes built in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim.
The accusation relates to mobile homes presented by the EU to Palestinian and Bedouin families living in the West Bank area east of Jerusalem, which Israel has charged amount to illegal construction by the European umbrella body.
“Andersen must be restrained!” flashes onto the screen at the video’s conclusion, alongside a mockup photo of Andersen with a Hannibal Lecter mask across his face.
Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold was quick to criticize the video on Sunday evening. His office released a statement saying that he “condemns the disrespectful way the European Union ambassador was presented.”
The video was produced by a settler group opposed to the creation of a future Palestinian state, which calls itself the “Jerusalem Periphery Forum.”
https://www.facebook.com/otef.jerusalem/videos/1563939557231333/
In text on a Facebook post that carried the video, the group said that Andersen “is the man behind the illegal construction around Route 1, whose purpose is to create facts on the ground: territorial contiguity for a future terror state.”
In past dust-ups with the Israeli government over the housing aid, the EU delegation said it amounted to humanitarian aid for those Israel neglected to help, and did not carry diplomatic significance.
One left-wing lawmaker accused the settler group of “systematically working to sabotage Israel’s foreign relations.”
Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg said in a statement Sunday evening that she had “asked the attorney general to determine whether this is incitement, and to examine the organization’s sources of funding, out of concern it is using public funds.”
Raphael Ahren contributed to this report
