Policy papers

EU-funded study of Palestinian textbooks: tempering allegations while feeding a one-sided narrative
July 2021

The note critically reviews the new EU-funded study of Palestinian textbooks by the Georg-Eckert Institute and responds to efforts to misrepresent its findings. It argues that the planned EU follow-up on the study is seriously misguided.
EU support for UN investigations at the Human Rights Council: the Israel/Palestine exception
May 2021

EU states have voted for all UN Human Rights Council resolutions establishing independent investigations into violent crises except for those on Israel/Palestine, where they mostly abstained.
EU and Trump plan: Keeping it off the table
April 2020

The Q&A note addresses possible European diplomatic engagement following the release of the US plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It warns that promoting negotiations or multilateral diplomacy in the context of the Trump plan, for example through the Quartet, could do more harm than good. Instead, the paper proposes more productive ways forward for the EU.
The UN Security Council and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: disproportionate neglect
January 2020

Claims that the UN is singling out Israel by adopting a disproportionate number of resolutions are deeply misleading because they leave the UNSC out of the picture. Given the primacy of the UNSC within the UN system, the opposite is more true: there is a disproportionate neglect of Israel/Palestine.
EuMEP Policy note: Rebooting EU policy on Gaza 
July 2018

The note proposes ways to refocus the EU’s policy on Gaza in the context of recent US and Israeli moves, the unbearable humanitarian situation, the mass protests at the Gaza fence, and the failing effort at intra-Palestinian reconciliation. If the EU wants to be more than a “cash machine” subsidising others' agendas in Gaza, it needs to change its approach.
EuMEP Policy note on the Quartet report 
July 2016

On 1 July 2016, the Middle East Quartet, composed of the EU, US, Russia and UN, published a long-awaited report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Quartet report, pushed ahead to a great extent by the EU, was an opportunity to provide a realistic and impartial assessment of the situation and to propose a meaningful way forward. Unfortunately, the report fails on both accounts.