INTERNATIONAL LAW IS INVOKED ONLY WHEN IT CAN BE USED AGAINST THE JEWISH STATE

Facts on the ground: Confronting the hypocrisy of the European Union 

The purpose in sponsoring Palestinian construction in illegal areas is political, not humanitarian—designed to change the map around Israel’s capital. 

 

By Stephen M. Flatow 

 

JNS

Aug 26, 2025

 

 

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich holds a map of an area near the settlement of Maale Adumim, a land corridor known as E1, outside Jerusalem in the West Bank, on Aug. 14, 2025.

 

When Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently approved some 3,400 new housing units in Area E1, global condemnation was swift. Kaja Kallas, the foreign-policy chief for the European Union, denounced the move as “illegal under international law” and a mortal threat to the “viability of a future Palestinian state.”

But there’s a glaring omission in this outrage: For years, the European Union has sponsored Palestinian construction across Area C, including E1 itself, without permits and in direct violation of the framework of the Oslo Accords. The outrage only applies when Israel builds.

Why does E1 matter?

Since Oslo, Area C, especially the E1 corridor stretching between eastern Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, has been Israel’s strategic backbone. E1 ensures Jerusalem’s contiguity and secures Highway 1, the artery that connects the capital to the Jordan Valley.

Yitzhak Rabin, in his final speech at the Knesset in 1995, stressed that Jerusalem would remain united and that Israel would retain the settlement blocs. Linking Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem through E1 was not an afterthought but central to his vision.

Without E1, Jerusalem risks being surrounded: Ramallah to the north, Bethlehem to the south and unregulated Palestinian encampments to the east. To Israel’s defense planners, losing it would mean severing Jerusalem from the rest of the country to the east.

While Israel has delayed or frozen its own plans under pressure, the European Union has poured money into Palestinian projects in Area C, openly defying Israeli authority.

Historian and journalist Edwin Black reported that “hundreds of millions of euros annually” flow into unauthorized Palestinian infrastructure in Area C. A Middle East Forum study calculated that since 2009, E.U.- and U.N.-backed projects have reached more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion), including roads, water systems and housing. The numbers are staggering: More than 90,000 illegal structures and 23,000 acres seized, averaging 3,500 new structures each year.

In 2015, Israeli NGO Regavim revealed that E.U. and British aid groups funded hundreds of Palestinian buildings in Area C, deliberately bypassing Israel’s Civil Administration. Many were marked with E.U. flags to prevent demolition.

Meir Deutsch of Regavim explained it plainly: “The European Union has been acting as a de facto planning authority in Area C.”

Palestinian Media Watch has shown how Palestinian Authority officials describe these E.U.-funded projects as tools to “sever Jerusalem from its settlements.” The purpose is political, not humanitarian—designed to change the map around Israel’s capital.

Smotrich has said openly that E1 construction would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.” Agree or not, at least he is candid. The European Union, by contrast, dresses its own violations in the language of peace.

If Israeli construction in E1 is “illegal,” then so are unauthorized Palestinian structures built with European funds. If “facts on the ground” are unacceptable when Israel creates them, they should be equally unacceptable when Brussels bankrolls them.

Instead, Israel is condemned for legal housing projects while the European Union receives a free pass for illegal ones. That isn’t diplomacy. It’s hypocrisy.

For decades, U.S. administrations have pressured Israel on E1. Former President George W. Bush’s 2003 “roadmap” discouraged it; former President Barack Obama called it “especially provocative”; even U.S. President Donald Trump’s team during its first term quietly advised Netanyahu to hold off.

Yet never once did Washington—or Brussels, for that matter—issue parallel condemnations of E.U.-funded Palestinian building. Not one warning. Not one rebuke. The silence speaks volumes.

The selective outrage over E1 is not about legality or peace. It’s about constraining Israel. International law is invoked only when it can be used against the Jewish state.

If the European Union genuinely wants to promote a negotiated outcome, then it must start by honoring its own commitments under Oslo, halting unauthorized construction, and respecting Israel’s authority in Area C. Anything less undermines both Israeli security and the credibility of diplomacy itself.

American Jews should care because while E1 might sound like a technical dispute, in reality, it goes to the heart of Jerusalem’s security and permanence as Israel’s capital. Every E.U.-funded illegal structure erodes Israel’s ability to defend its capital. Every international condemnation of Israel’s lawful planning, while ignoring foreign-backed violations, chips away at the Jewish state’s legitimacy.

If we care about Jerusalem, we cannot ignore this double standard. Diaspora Jews must press their elected officials to stop echoing Brussels’s talking points and instead defend Israel’s right to secure its capital and borders.

For 3,000 years, Jews have prayed toward Jerusalem. Today, our responsibility is to ensure that those prayers are not undermined by hypocrisy masquerading as diplomacy.