The European Union has expressed frustration with Israel over its demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank. In a meeting at the Foreign ministry in Jerusalem, EU ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen delivered a stern diplomatic message, saying Israel was failing in its international legal obligations and needed to change its policy. The message by the EU came after Israel issued demolition orders last month against 42 homes in the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem, where EU member states Belgium and Italy have funded a school and helped build structures, without Israeli consent, for the local population of around 150.
Israel responded to the EU’s message stressing that illegal construction was dealt with according to the law and that Israel was “perplexed by the EU’s obsessive involvement in the matter.” The clampdown against the village of Khan al-Ahmar, located in a sensitive area of the West Bank that Israel has earmarked for its own settlement expansion, is the latest in a series of demolitions that have been roundly condemned by the EU and the United Nations.