EU Countries Demand Refund For Confiscated West Bank Equipment

European Union member states are set to issue an unprecedented demand that Israel reimburse them for equipment and structures they financed in the West Bank that were either confiscated or destroyed by Jerusalem. Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Luxembourg, Ireland and Denmark have reportedly written a letter—to be delivered to the Israeli Foreign Ministry in the coming days—calling on the government to either return the materials, which reportedly includes school-related items and solar panels, among others, or reimburse them to the tune of 31,252 Euros, or approximately 37,000 US dollars. In the communique, the countries allege that the items were designated to serve residents of the mixed Israeli-Palestinian Area C (a region in the West Bank designated by the Oslo Accords over which Israel retains full military and administrative control), but that Jerusalem opted to remove them as they were not legally erected or commissioned. The countries purportedly charge in the letter that “the practice of coercive measures such as demolitions and confiscations of humanitarian supplies…causes suffering to Palestinian civilians.” Israel has not responded to the controversy, which comes after various United Nations Security Council members as well as the EU condemned Jerusalem’s advancement of plans to construct 2,733 homes for Jews living in West Bank communities, warning that such activity could lead to a one-state reality.