The legal fragmentation of Palestine-Israel and European Union policies promoting the rule of law

Abstract

This chapter is a contribution to the existing literature criticizing the EU role in the Israeli Palestinian peace process. It observes the existing contradiction in EU foreign policy: on the one hand the EU continues to upgrade the EU-Israel ties to an unprecedented level, while on the other hand, the EU maintains a critical tone towards Israeli settlement project in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). It also notices the rather generous contribution of the EU to the Palestinians, while at the same playing a minimal political role in negotiations with Israel. In this chapter, the author argues that the EU contributes to the consolidation of Israeli occupation, and its policies of exclusion of Palestinians from the space of rule of law and democracy, exclusively reserved for its citizens proper, giving space to what some have called, authoritatively, an apartheid system in the OPT.