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The EU and the Palestinian Arab Minority in Israel

In 2005, in the jointly-agreed European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) Action Plan, the European Union (EU) and Israel decided to enhance their political dialogue and cooperation in the field of promotion and protection of human rights. In particular, they agreed to ‘Promote and protect rights of minorities, including enhancing political, economic, social and cultural opportunities for all citizens and lawful residents’.

However, five years later, the rights of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel continue to be violated, with a clear deterioration since the election of the current Israeli government in February 2009. In April 2010, the EU concluded in its progress report on the implementation by Israel of its Action Plan in 2009 that ‘little progress was registered in the situation of the Arab minority’. Despite this recognition, EU policy concerning the rights of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel has been weak. The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) and its working group on Palestine, Israel and Palestinians decided to inquire further into EU policies towards the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel and to try to contribute to their strengthening.

The traditional sidelining of Palestinian Arab minority inside Israel or the “1948 Arabs” and human rights more broadly within the Middle East Peace Process (MEPP) has meant that, when the EU has dealt with this group, it has done so primarily through the lens of EU’s declared goal of promoting human rights and democracy in the world (Article 21 of the Treaty on European Union).

As a result, attention to the minority has been overshadowed by the regional conflict and by what are perceived by EU actors to be the “graver” human rights violations perpetrated in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), comprising the West Bank, including East-Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The EU’s aspirations to act as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have also increased the EU’s incentives to sideline the rights violations against the Palestinian Arab minority in order not to antagonise Israel.

This report argues that the EU has not put to full use the instruments at its disposal to advance the full and equal citizenship rights and political standing of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel. Indeed, while acknowledging the problems faced by the minority, the EU has not used conditionality, nor has it engaged in declaratory diplomacy on the issue. The minority has featured in EU-Israel political dialogue, but its importance has been overshadowed by attention devoted to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, narrowly defined.

Finally, the EU has devoted some of its financial assistance to the minority, in particular by supporting civil society projects. However, the impact the EU has had on the rights of the minority through assistance has been blunted by the limited amount of funds channelled to Israel (both to the State and civil society organisations) and countered otherwise by the EU’s inability to prevent internal discriminatory practices in Israel from spilling into EU assistance and cooperation programmes.

EU policy towards the Arab citizens of Israel should be informed by a greater awareness of the link between the Palestinian Arab minority and the broader dynamic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If the EU is intent on pursuing peace and stability on the basis of two democratic states in Israel and Palestine, it should engage more actively in strengthening the full and equal citizenship rights and political standing of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel, making greater use of the instruments at its disposal (conditionality, declarations, dialogue, assistance and cooperation).

Acknowledging the link between the minority and the conflict (and peace process) may be viewed by some analysts as a double-edged sword, a strategy that could lend legitimacy to the negative link that has been articulated by various political factions in Israel, which includes the forcible exchange of population and revocation of the citizenship of large numbers of Arab citizens of Israel within the framework of a two-state solution. Yet, precisely for this reason, factoring in the link between the conflict and the minority is imperative, not because this ought to change the solution backed by the EU, but rather because ignoring this link renders the EU’s stated objective of promoting a two-state solution that is based on the principles of democracy and human rights less feasible.

Therefore, a systematic EU strategy towards the conflict in support of a rights-based, sustainable and democratic two-state solution in Israel and Palestine must incorporate the rights of the Palestinian Arab minority as full and equal citizens in Israel as an essential component.

Read the full report here