[VIDEO & PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

Early Tuesday morning 19 Adar, Israeli police demolished an illegally built structure a few hundred meters away from the Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus which bore a European Union flag. The structure was situated on state land which is zoned as a national park, it is one of five hundred built by the European Union on state land in and around Jerusalem, without any coordination with the Israeli authorities.

A recent report by Regavim highlighted this new EU policy of unilaterally building on behalf of the Arabs in Jerusalem and Area C to the detriment of Israel. The Regavim report has subsequently been presented to the European Parliament by a number of concerned MEPs and awaits a hearing in the Foreign Policy Committee.

Ari Briggs, international director of Regavim and one of the authors of the report stated: “After years of researching this new phenomena of illegal European settlements in and around Jerusalem, we praise the Jerusalem municipality for beginning to enforce the rule of law. We see this action as a direct consequence of the recent Regavim expose on the subject and call on the government of Israel to find an immediate solution for the other 499 structures that we have identified as illegal EU settlements.”

Regavim is a research based NGO that focuses on ensuring the responsible, legal and environmentally friendly use of Israel’s state lands. The organization is made up of legal professionals and field workers that monitor, compile reports and litigate against improper land use across Israel and Yehuda and Shomron.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)