The EU is funding illegal settlers! (Illegal Turkish settlers, that is.)

From Wikipedia:

The demographic character of Northern Cyprus changed after the Turkish invasion in 1974 and especially during the last 10–15 years. The TRNC census carried out in April 2006 showed that out of a total population of 256,644 in Northern Cyprus, 132,635, or 52%, were Turkish Cypriots in the sense that they were born in Cyprus of at least one Cyprus-born parent (for 120,007 of these both parents were Cyprus-born). In addition, 43,062 TRNC citizens (17%) had at least one non-Cypriot Turkish-born parent, 2,334 TRNC citizens (1%) had parents born in other countries, 70,525 residents (27%) had Turkish citizenship, and 8,088 (3%) were citizens of other countries (mainly UK, Bulgaria, and Iran). Based on these census data, it can be argued that 113,687 TRNC residents, or 44% of the population, are not Turkish Cypriots properly speaking, but are in fact "Turkish immigrants" or "Turkish settlers" from Anatolia. Alternative sources suggest that there are 146,122 Turkish settlers from Anatolia in TRNC (2007 figures) and that the Turkish Cypriots in Northern Cyprus are today outnumbered by the Turkish settlers, contrary to the picture presented by the 2006 TRNC census.

Almost one-third of the Turkish settlers in Northern Cyprus have been granted TRNC citizenship by the authorities of Northern Cyprus and have thus been naturalized. Settlement in Northern Cyprus, especially if accompanied by naturalization, is a violation to the Geneva Conventions Protocol of 1977, since the Turkish occupation has been declared illegal by the UN. The Republic of Cyprus government regards these Turkish immigrants as "illegal settlers" and does not include them in the population estimates for the entire island published by the Republic of Cyprus Statistical Service.[5]

So given that roughly half of the residents of northern Cyprus are illegal settlers, and the land is under illegal occupation by Turkey, certainly the EU would never consider investing in the illegal occupation, right?

Not really. Here is a glossy brochure from the EU that brags about all of the projects it is proudly sponsoring there:

Nowhere in this brochure, nor in the 2006 EU resolution to help the Turkish Cypriots, is any distincton made between the natives and the illegal settlers - all of them benefit equally from the EU programs to help the environment, co-existence, farming, education, infrastructure and so forth.

By any measure, the EU is funding the Turkish settlement enterprise.

Eugene Kontorovich describes the hypocrisy in a JPost op-ed (in yesterday's linkdump)

Under guidelines prepared earlier this summer, euros would not be allowed to go to Israeli entities located cross the Green Line – or to those that have any operations there. All Israeli entities applying for funding would have to submit a declaration that they do not have such operations.

Europe claims that such a move – unparalleled in its dealings with any other country – is mandated by international law. The EU does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the territories, and thus has an obligation to keep its money from going there. Those who celebrated the move said that Israel is finally paying the international price for its occupation.

Yet it turns out that despite the guidelines, the EU still knowingly and purposefully provides substantial direct financial assistance to settlements in occupied territory – in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, that is. So the EU funds the occupation of an EU member state. Turkey’s invasion and occupation of Cyprus in 1974 was condemned the UN Security Council, and the EU’s official policy is that the Turkish occupation is illegitimate, and Turkey must completely withdraw. The EU does not recognize the Turkish government in Northern Cyprus.

Nonetheless, the EU maintains an entire separate program to direct funds to Northern Cyprus.
...
Projects include study abroad scholarships for students at the numerous Northern Cyprus universities (imagine such funding for students at Ariel University!); developing and diversifying the private sector through grants to small and medium- sized businesses; various kinds of infrastructure improvements (telecom upgrades, traffic safety, waste disposal); community development grants, funding to upgrade “cultural heritage” sites, and so forth. They even put on a concert.

The program basically gives grants to the Turkish business and private entities, and builds the infrastructure of the occupying government. The EU is doing exactly what its claims, in the settlement guidelines, international law prohibits.

The relevant EU resolutions and reports make no mention of any international legal question about such funding.

There are real differences between the EU’s funding policies toward Turkey’s occupied territories and Israel’s territories: the former is a much starker contradiction of the principles the Europeans proclaim to uphold. The settlement guidelines aim to regulate groups based in Israel proper, and goes out of its way to make sure no money might be incidentally spent in the West Bank (or Golan or, oddly, Gaza). Yet the Northern Cyprus project is not simply an outgrowth of standing arrangements with Turkey or Cyprus, but rather a particular funding program that by definition funds 100% occupation activities.

Indeed, the EU maintains an office in Northern Cyprus to oversee its over “1000 grant contracts...to NGOs, SMEs, farmers, rural communities, schools and students,” according to an EU report.

This office liaises directly with the Turkish occupation regime in the territory.

Hmmmm. One standard for Israel, another for everyone else. Sounds very familiar.

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B'Tselem and Hamas' excellent adventure

YNet reports:

A B’Tselem ad calling on Hamas to release IDF soldier Gilad Shalit "immediately and unconditionally" has been banned in Gaza, according to the Israeli human rights organization.

The group spokeswoman said the ad was published on Thursday by the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds, which is circulated in the West Bank, but the Gaza-based daily 'Palestine' refused to print it.

"We wanted to publish the ad in the Gaza Strip as well, but we were unsuccessful," the spokeswoman told Ynet.

"They ('Palestine' newspaper staff) did not give us a reason for the refusal, but we assume it's because the issue is a complex one (in the Hamas-ruled territory). The press in Gaza is apparently not so free. The ad was published in Al-Quds, and we hope the residents of Gaza will read it there."

B'Tselem, a human rights organization, will not hesitate to condemn Israel at the drop of a hat, but look how difficult it is for them to say anything bad about Hamas.

"We assume."
"It's complex."
"Apparently not so free."

Not "We were refused" but "we were unsuccessful."

This episode illuminates B'Tselem's mindset far better than it illustrates Hamas'.

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UC Santa Barbara clears lying, anti-semitic professor

From YNet/AP:

A committee at a California university has cleared a professor who sent an e-mail comparing Israel's policies in Gaza to the Holocaust.

Officials at the University of California, Santa Barbara, sent a letter Wednesday to sociology professor William I. Robinson saying the committee had closed the matter.

In January, Robinson offended some students and others with an e-mail to his "Sociology of Globalization" class that juxtaposed grisly photos from the Nazi era with a recent Gaza offensive.

Robinson has said his justified criticism of Israel's policies should not be confused as anti-Semitism.

As I reported then, the media screwed up this story big time.

First of all, Robinson sent out an email with 42 pictures juxtaposing Nazi-era pictures with pictures of Israelis and Arabs. While it was characterized as if it was source material for a class, it was nothing of the sort.

Secondly, while the university seems to have been fixated on whether this was anti-semitic or not (and it clearly is,) it ignored that his "facts" were provably wrong. Robinson didn't just tell his students his opinions; he told them lies as if they were factual.

When a university has such a disregard for the truth, it loses all credibility. This episode does not just damn Robinson - it damns the entire University fo California Santa Barbara as a serious institution of higher education.

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"Free Gaza" loses its Dignity

An "urgent email" to the Free Gaza mailing list:

It's with heavy hearts that we have to inform you that the Free Gaza ship, the DIGNITY, has been lost outside Larnaca port in Cyprus. Fortunately, no one was injured in the accident.

On 30 December 2008 the DIGNITY was rammed by the Israeli navy while on a mission of mercy to deliver critically needed medical supplies and doctors to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. Thanks to the heroic efforts of its captain and crew, the DIGNITY was able to find safe harbor in Lebanon, later making its way to Cyprus for repairs. Early this morning we received a call from the Harbor Master in Larnaca, informing us that the ship was taking on water. While attempting to tow her to safety, the ship went down. An inquiry has begun into the circumstances surrounding her demise, possibly due to storm damage suffered during the night.

Maybe we should send this fake "humanitarian" organization some toothpicks to help rebuild the boat.

Their last boat had essentially no aid whatsoever.

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Galloway ties himself up in his own "logic"

Moonbat George Galloway explains why all that "desperately needed aid" for Gaza has strings attached:

The problem is that the authorities are insisting that some of the vehicles, led by the big red Manchester fire engine and the truck carrying a generator, should cross through an Israeli checkpoint, rather than this one.

Egypt is extremely sensitive to Israeli demands, no doubt with US leverage as well. But our attitude is that we've come all this way together and we're not going to be split now. All for one, one for all.

Now, there's an attitude that "starving Gazans" can understand: a quote from The Three Musketeers!

Perhaps sensing that this reason might not fly, Galloway offers another:

To give in to this would be to admit to Israeli command and control, which we can't do.

And yet, he just admitted that Egypt controls the border, by allowing some of the vehicles to cross through Rafah. So Galloway needs to offer yet a third reason to keep those Gaza residents waiting for their aid:

But we can't accept a special favour from Israel which, for almost two years, has sealed the borders and starved the Palestinian people, a communal punishment which is illegal under the Geneva Conventions.

So the ambulances, generator, food and medicine is less important than Galloway's pride at accepting a "special favour" from Israel, which during the course of his trip from England has delivered 47,000 tons of aid and millions of liters of fuel.

Not only that, but much of the aid that Israel sent through its crossings came from Jordan and Dubai - whose interest in helping Gazans is more important to them than the fact that Israel is the conduit. Is Galloway more pro-Gazan than the Arabs who send aid through Israel?

Or is his own ego more important than Gazans getting aid? After all, he happily reports being greeted by sheep and goats:

It's frustrating, but we wait. A game of football has started between Brits and Libyan drivers who have joined our convoy. Earlier, a massive cheering crowd of thousands of local people, as well as hundreds of goats and sheep, greeted us when we arrived.

He pointedly didn't mention the Egyptians who pelted his convoy with stones and sprayed anti-Hamas slogans on the trucks. As is often the case with moonbats, their own sense of self-importance trumps the needs of the people they pretend to want to help.

More proof of Galloway's ego taking precedence over the aid:

This has been an amazing journey. The only slight blemish has been the neglect of it in the press back home, with some notable exceptions.

The Guardian even unearthed a Trotskyist in Egypt - the only one, surely - to pour ordure on me. I bet it wouldn't have happened to Bono.

And I bet Bono would have happily sent aid through Israel.

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The intifada against Galloway's convoy

It is amazing how one's perspective on stone-throwers can change when you are the target:

A British convoy led by MP George Galloway with medical relief for Gaza was pelted with stones and vandalised in the Egyptian town El-Arish on Sunday, an organiser said.

The convoy, which set out from London last month carrying relief supplies valued at one million pounds (1.4 million dollars), arrived in El-Arish, about 45 kilometres (28 miles) from the Rafah passage to Gaza, on Saturday.

"It's an absolute disgrace," convoy organiser Yvonne Ridley told AFP. "The power was cut. During cover of darkness members of our convoy were attacked with stones.

"Vandals also wrote dirty words and anti-Hamas slogans," she said. "Several people in the convoy were injured in the attack."

A security official told AFP that during a power cut, which is a frequent occurrence in the town, children had pelted the convoy with stones.

How can Ridley call children throwing stones a "disgrace?" Isn't that what she and her fellow moonbats tell each other is how the proud Palestinian Arab "resistance" brings Israel to its knees?

(Iran's PressTV is reporting that the stone-throwers were associated with Fatah, which hardly seems likely.)

Egypt is telling the convoy that medicines can go through Rafah but food needs to go through the Israeli crossing at Kerem Shalom. And here is where the moonbats let the world know that Gazans really don't need food that much.

Apparently, ordinary Egyptians are not so enamored of Hamas' beliefs and methods as the Europeans are. The closer you are to Hamas, it appears, the less you like Hamas..

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Convergence of idiots at Rafah

Today, three separate groups have descended on Rafah in Egypt, trying to get into Gaza to call attention to how evil Israel is, and to give some token humanitarian aid to Gaza:

American and European delegations attempting to enter Gaza via the Rafah border crossing remained at the gate Friday after being consistently denied passage.

The 10 members of the American delegation, titled the Gaza Medical/Mental Delegation, camped in front of the Rafah gate Thursday night but their efforts to pass through into Gaza have been repeatedly thwarted by authorities at the crossing.

“The answer is always no,” American activist from the delegation Inaya Khalil told Daily News Egypt in a telephone interview.

Besides the 10 Americans, there are 19 Italians, 14 British, two French and one Swiss national also at the crossing not being permitted entry into Gaza. The delegations are made up of doctors, social workers and filmmakers.

Despite the lack of success in their fourth attempt in four days to enter Gaza, Khalil indicated that the delegation had no intention of leaving and would remain at the crossing.

“Egyptian authorities are telling us that they have enough medical relief inside Gaza but that’s not what I’ve heard,” Bryant said. “This is a typical thing that the US and Israel have done in several areas, it’s ethnic cleansing. What’s a wall for? It’s collective punishment.”

Another 60-strong American delegation arrived at the gate Friday night, spearheaded by the Code Pink foundation, a grassroots women’s initiative, carrying with it 2,000 gift baskets for the people of Gaza. The delegation is traveling at the invitation of the UN Relief and Works Agency for its Gaza Gender Initiative. [This is the one that Rachel Corrie's parents are a part of - EoZ]

Another delegation headed by British Respect MP George Galloway entered Egypt from Libya Thursday and is expected at the crossing on Sunday.

Concerning the Galloway convoy, some interesting details from Al Arabiya:

“A lifeline from Britain to Gaza,” is the motto of Viva Palestina, which started out with 110 trucks from London but was doubled in Libya after the Gaddafi Foundation for Charity and Development donated 100 trucks laden with aid.

Yvonne Ridley, award winning journalist who accompanied the convoy, reported that Israel pressured Egypt to divert the convoy to go through Israeli borders.

"Israel is putting huge pressure on Egypt to force the convoy which is now doubled in size, a British-Libyan venture, through Israeli territory," she said at the conference.

Meanwhile, four Viva Palestina convoy volunteers were reportedly refused entry into Egypt for security reasons.

Stephen Gray, Richard Burton, Shams Suppin Razaq and Azam Hussein left to Tripoli, in Libya from where they will fly to the UK via Amsterdam Sunday.

Ridley, by the way, is there as a correspondent for - Iran's Press TV.

Today may be interesting as we see exactly what Egypt does with these terror-cheering moonbats.

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