On May 13 the Israeli forces attacked the European Gaza Hospitalthe last health center that continued to give treatment to the more than 10,000 Cancer patients of the strip. The bombing against the patio and the surrounding center severely damaged its walls and pipes, cut the water supply and forced to evacuate its 200 patients, according to its director. Israel later affirmed without providing evidence that the objective was a command center of Hamás supposedly located under the hospital, where the leader of his military branch would have been hidden, Mohamed Sinwar. But did not previously notify the bombing, which constitutes a alleged war crimeand 28 people died. That same hospital had been built with 53 million dollars contributed by the European Union In the 90s. And like so many others projects financed by Brussels and its member countries in Palestine It has been inoperative for Israeli attacks. Of many other projects, there are only debris.
The European Union is the Greater Collective Donor of the Palestinians Since 1993, when the National Palestinian Authority Following the Oslo agreements signed with Israel. It supports its institutions, in a commitment to keep alive the solution of the two states, and keeps its maltrecha economy afloat. But also invest in educational, health, social or energy projects. Between 2014 and 2023 he contributed to Palestine almost 1.6 billion of the European taxpayeraccording to official data from the European Commission, most of them destined to keep the Government of Ramala. To which we must add the 509 million disbursed in Humanitarian aid for Gaza Since October 2023, when Hamas launched the current disaster with his massive attack on southern Israel. If the funds granted to UN and Oenegés agencies that work with the Palestinians are included, the amount is even greater.
But some of those projects financed by Europe are regularly destroyed by Israeli military O off Jewish settlerswithout Israel having paid to date compensation for damages caused, According to several sources consulted. Of the 158 projects subsidized by the EU in Gaza Since 2014, at least 15 have been destroyed during the current military campaign, according to the analysis of El Periódico, which has only counted those incidents that it has been able to verify through open sources. Which throws a cost of almost 12 million sprayed euros From the beginning of the Israeli assault.
He greater beneficiary of European funds It was the the municipality of Ashan al Kabira, A small agricultural town east of Jan Yunis. The town was completely destroyed in the first weeks of the assault, according to an analysis of satellite images of ‘El País’, and with it the 2.5 million euros that the EU invest in installing “Renewable Energy Sources in its public and residential buildings. ”The same has happened with the 17 Universities of Gaza, One of the main focuses of European aid. Some were dynamited, others destroyed by bombings. Only only the chamuscada housing of its campus remains, where families of displaced people now take refuge. Brussels had invested more than four million in the universities of Al Azhar, Islamic, Al Quds open or the Applied Sciences College, dedicated to professional training. He financed programs for agricultural and business research, learning English or work out of the strip.
Nor have projects been saved to support To the middle, A reputed human rights organization, whose headquarters in Jabralia was completely destroyed. That of Instituto Citydedicated to promoting democracy and training young people with leadership skills, was severely damaged. The school for deaf children of the Aftaluna Society, where Brussels had a project committed worth 375,000 euros.
Bank and Jerusalem East
Also in the West Bank and Jerusalem, European investments are often destroyed or frequently confiscated, although there are more linked to Israel’s colonization policy. In 2023, the last year of which there are official EU data, its military and settlers demolished “78 structures” financed by Brussels or its member states, with a value of 248,000 euros. If the sum has been made since 2015, there are 927 structures valued in almost three million euros. From schools to solar panels, prefabricated houses, latrines or playgrounds, generally located in communities threatened by Israeli policies of Forced displacement. The Jewish state argues that they were built without a license, which is true, because only on few occasions grant construction permits to the Palestinians. He International Court of Justice He has labeled that “discriminatory” policy because it favors the expansion of colonies to the detriment of Palestinian development
“This demolition policy generates a coercion climate that does not leave the Palestinians more alternative than leave their lands“, assures this newspaper Allegra Pacheco, director of the West Bank Protection Consortiuman organization funded by the EU and 13 other donor countries, including Spain, which provides humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. “If you listen to Israeli officials or read the colonists’ websites, it is clear that the objective is to annex. of the West Bank and prevent the possibility of a viable Palestinian State. “Area C comprises 61% of the West Bank territory.
European schizophrenia
The European Commission He has not answered the newspaper’s questions at the close of this edition, but he often limits himself to expressing his “deep concern” and faint for the destruction of his projects. Little else. Its member countries, on the other hand, do usually use diplomatic channels for ask for compensation to Israel by letter, although there is no record that they are treated. “What we see on the ground is that Israel does not distinguish between the facilities financed by Europeans or purely local initiatives. It is embarked on a Total war against the Palestinian peoplewherever it is, ”says Shai Pins, spokesman for B zelem, an Israeli human rights organization that works in the occupied territories. The settlers, he says, are nothing more than an extension of the state’s violence.“ None of this is new, it is part of the Apartheid regime Tax for decades to appropriate the Earth. What has changed since October 7 is the scale and level of brutality of these attacks, which are now produced in broad daylight, ”adds Pines.
All this highlights the deep Schizophrenia of European politics In the region. With one hand pay what Israel breaks And keep the National Palestinian Project; With the other, he sells to Tel Aviv the armas with which he is destroying the Palestinians and gives him diplomatic coverage. “If Europe wanted to have a lot of capacity to influence Israel. Think that half of the bombs that fall on gaza are bombs made in Europe,” said this week Josep Borrell, Whoever until a few months ago the maximum representative of European foreign policy. The drama of all this is that Europe pays without influencing. And not only their investments are destroyed, but also the lives of those to which it intends to help.
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