First, the news about a new joint PA-EU enterprise (thanks to Challah Hu Akbar) which is reported in this headline:EU Grants PA 6 Million Euros to Support Jerusalem
The details are:The EU granted 6 million euros to the Palestinian Authority (PA) Tuesday to support the development, cultural, educational, health, humanitarian and human rights sectors in Jerusalem. Head of the President''s office Hussein al-Araj signed the agreement with EU representative Christian Berger at the EU headquarters in Jerusalem...The plan, estimated at $428 million, was prepared with the involvement of the Jerusalem community and funding by the EU. Al-Araj hopes that this plan will receive Arab and Islamic support in order to face Israeli plans of judeaizing Jerusalem...
Reading that, I thought to myself, that besides the fact that Israel will not permit these plans to be realized as conceived, thereby creating an opportunity for certain unethical persons to perhaps attempt to abscond with the money, one way or another, there is yet another consideration. Since the last time a major "cultural heritage" project was carried out in Jerusalem, by the Waqf which is a PA body in that the Grand Mufti who administers the Waqf Trust, Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, is appointed by Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian National Authority. Jewish historical artifacts were purposely destroyed and scientific archaeological practices were violated. I am referring, of course, to the Temple Mount soil theft -...in 1996, the Waqf embarked on the conversion of the area under the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount — Solomon’s Stables and the eastern Hulda Gate — into what was to be the largest mosque in the country with a capacity of 7-10,000... the Marwani mosque...Operating without any archeological oversight and with no permits, the Waqf surreptitiously brought in heavy machinery and proceeded to construct, prompting the Jerusalem municipality to obtain a court order to halt the unsupervised building......In 1999, after receiving approval to open an emergency exit in the Marwani mosque, the Waqf used bulldozers to expand the Solomon’s Stable mosque and excavate a massive opening (18,000 square feet by 36 feet)...Workers dumped this rubble in the Kidron Valley. Amir Drori, director of the Antiquities Authority at the time, called it “an archeological crime” and Attorney General Elyakim Rubenstein denounced it as “an assault on Jewish history.” Archeologists claimed that important artifacts from the First and Second Temples were found in this rubble, and in 2004, a project to sift the dumped material was initiated...
Does the EU really have a reliable supervisory mechanism in place that would oversee the results of the EU''s largesse? Furthermore, would it not only halt the money flow in case of such criminal activity but actually halt criminal activity which has already happened under Israeli rule? If the Israelis couldn''t stop the work, can the EU or is it willing to do so?Is the EU really in cahoots with a plan to de-judeaize Jerusalem?
Is that what the EU supports?