The European Union has unanimously adopted a tough resolution criticising Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories, despite fierce efforts by Israel to persuade some EU members to block it.



The resolution was agreed by the EU foreign affairs council on Monday after Greece, one of five countries Israel had hoped would block acceptance of the resolution, backed down following a weekend of wrangling and pressure from Palestinian officials and other European diplomats.

The resolution emphasised that EU agreements with Israel applied only to the State of Israel within the pre-1967 border, adding that the “EU must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967. This does not constitute a boycott of Israel, which the EU strongly opposes”.

Hinting that further measures may be in the pipeline, it continued: “The EU will continue to closely monitor developments on the ground and their broader implications and will consider further action in order to protect the viability of the two-state solution, which is constantly eroded by new facts on the ground.”

The resolution was drawn up amid mounting frustration from a number of European governments over the moribund state of the Israel-Palestine peace process, and is intended to increase pressure on the rightwing coalition government led by Binyamin Netanyahu.

The adoption of the document is the latest diplomatic setback for an increasingly isolated Israel after Netanyahu’s failure to derail the Iran nuclear deal, which came into force over the weekend.

Intended as a follow-up step to the EU’s decision last year to insist that products produced in Israeli settlements were labelled as settlement products, not as Israeli, diplomats involved in the drafting of the language told the Guardian that the resolution was important in underlining the policy of strongly “differentiating” between the state of Israel and illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Among the countries pushing hardest for the resolution were France, Ireland and Sweden. Ahead of the meeting on Monday of the council, which is required to have a consensus on the resolutions it adopts, Israel had strongly lobbied Greece, Cyprus, Hungary, Bulgaria and Czech Republic.

It had hoped to persuade the five countries to form a bloc to prevent the adoption of the resolution and force a debate of European foreign ministers, a tactic Israel anticipated might weaken any language.

According to sources familiar with the conversations, Greece – which was unhappy with the EU labelling initiative – was the last holdout before folding under diplomatic pressure on Monday.

Speaking at a press conference, Bert Koenders, the Dutch foreign minister, warned against putting the Middle East peace process on the backburner. “The message is the same,” he said. “The European Union is concerned about the situation in the Middle East. We call for de-escalation. We think the political horizon is important.”

The EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said the document, agreed unanimously by the 28 EU foreign ministers, was “a good and common basis for our common position and also our engagement in the Middle East peace process”.

The strongest paragraph of the communique underlined the illegality of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

It said: “Recalling that settlements are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible, the EU reiterates its strong opposition to Israel’s settlement policy and actions taken in this context, such as building the separation barrier beyond the 1967 line, demolitions and confiscation – including of EU-funded projects – evictions, forced transfers including of Bedouins, illegal outposts and restrictions of movement and access.

“It urges Israel to end all settlement activity and to dismantle the outposts erected since March 2001, in line with prior obligations. Settlement activity in East Jerusalem seriously jeopardises the possibility of Jerusalem serving as the future capital of both states.”

Israel fears that the reiteration of the EU’s foreign policy at this time might be used to introduce further punitive European measures against Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and Golan Heights, which have been repeatedly called for by European diplomats in Israel.

The adoption came as the US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, sharply criticised its policies in the occupied West Bank on Monday.

Speaking at the Institute for National Security Studies conference in Tel Aviv, Shapiro said Israel had two standards for law on the West Bank – one for Israelis and one for Palestinians.

“Too much Israeli vigilantism in the West Bank goes on unchecked,” he said. Echoing the strong language from the EU, he said a two-state solution was the only way to prevent Israel from turning into a binational state, noting that the US was “concerned and perplexed” over the Israeli government’s continuing policy on the settlements.

Netanyahu’s office quickly responded, saying that Shapiro’s remarks “were unacceptable and wrong”. It said in a statement: “Israel enforces the law against Israelis and Palestinians. The Palestinian authority, which continues to incite and refuses to negotiate, is responsible for the freeze in negotiations.”