Israeli Experts Challenge Double Standards on 'Occupation' - Israel Today

Israeli Experts Challenge Double Standards on 'Occupation'

Sunday, December 29, 2013 |  Israel Today Staff  

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Two leading experts on international law, a former Israeli ambassador and a Jewish-American professor, are taking the European Union to task over the double standard it applies to the so-called Israeli “occupation.”

Professor Eugene Kontorovich of Northwestern University and former Israeli Ambassador to Canada Alan Baker have demanded to know why the EU recently signed a new fishing agreement with Morocco that included the waters of the Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco illegally occupies.

In remarks to The Times of Israel, both men noted that the EU’s approach to the fishing agreement is hypocritical just months after it published guidelines forbidding business dealings with Jewish businesses operating out of territories claimed by the Palestinians.

Baker and Kontorovich sent a letter to EU Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton insisting on clarification, but instead received a response stating that her office views the two occupations as being different. No explanation was provided.

The two experts noted that Western Sahara is not the only example of this double standard. For instance, the EU continues to do business with Turks living in Cyprus, even though Turkey’s occupation of the northern portion of the island nation is not recognized by the international community.

The full Times of Israel article is worth a read. Click here to do so.

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