Two recent news items are likely to interest – and concern – readers. The first is the EU legal notice stating that any deals with Israel must exclude all territories beyond the 1967 green line.
The EU guidelines, adopted on 30 June, will prohibit the issuing of grants, funding, prizes or scholarships unless a settlement exclusion clause is included. Israeli institutions and bodies situated across the pre-1967 Green Line will be automatically ineligible.
It would be interesting to know more about how this exclusion maps on to the EU’s dealings with other countries, with China, Russia, Saudi Arabia or Turkey for example. It seems that the EU has recently been forging closer ties with Burma, where the situation of the Rohingyas seems so dire.
The second relates to Transport for London’s agreement to an Israeli exclusion condition insisted on by the UAE. Paul Charney of the ZF has released a statement.
I am extremely disappointed to hear that Transport for London (TfL) has agreed to an Israeli exclusion condition put forward by the UAE relating to Thames Cable Cars.
As part of the agreement the cable car scheme can not receive funding from Israeli owned finance houses or banks. It also cannot sell a majority stake in the scheme to Israeli owned companies.
This sets a dangerous precedent effectively allowing UAE money to dictate government policy through commercial contracts. Bi-lateral trade has doubled over the past year making Israel one of Britain’s key trading partners. This contractual exclusion would not benefit the UK in the long run.
I call on TfL to urgently discuss this matter with foreign and trade ministers and reconsider this agreement before any lasting damage is done.
Again, information about precedents and parallels (or their absence) would be useful here.
The second story shouldn’t just concern friends of Israel. Another clause prohibits criticism by TfL spokespeople of many UAE institutions and figures of authority.
The Emirates Centre for Human Rights, which lobbies for reform in the UAE, called the clause “astonishing”.
“It seems they are trying to subject the authorities here to the same rules they apply to their citizens at home, who cannot criticise the Royal Family,” Rori Donaghy, campaigns director at the ECHR, told HuffPost UK.
“The UAE very carefully deploys its soft power, to build a positive image of the country, the ownership of Manchester City, the promotion of the airline, of holidays. I imagine this is something that would usually happen. We can’t know for sure, but it does seem likely [that this has happened before].”
“The fact that our politicians are being gagged is deeply concerning, consider the case of Lee Bradley Brown, murdered in Dubai, three British guys in prison with Dubai police investigated for torture, and the UAE government convicted 94 citizens, effectively found guilty of calling for democratic reform.”
Neither of these clauses would, I assume, have become public knowledge if it hadn’t been for a FoI request made by MayorWatch.
Update On the advice of amie and talpa australis I have changed the word ‘directive’ to ‘legal notice’, as this is a more accurate description. Rebecca has posted the full text over on Mystical Politics.
