ABSTRACT
European attempts to promote international legal norms and the rule of law in the Israeli–Palestinian arena have been contradictory and largely ineffective. The chapter argues that the European practice of maintaining two separated policies towards Israel and the Palestinian territories/the peace process, respectively, is a main reason for this state of affairs. As Israel effectively exerts control over the Palestinian territories and their inhabitants, and given the fragmented but interconnected Israeli–Palestinian space, maintaining two distinct policies is ill conceived and counterproductive. While providing aid and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population, European policies have unintentionally contributed to a further fragmentation of the Palestinian space. They have been supporting an increasingly illiberal Palestinian regime, the PA, which keeps law and order in the limited territories it controls. Thus, ironically, and in spite of continuous political rows, European policies have been fully in line with the preference of Israel’s right-wing governments of the last 15 years. Although Europe—defined here as the EU and its member states—recently started to acknowledge the flaws of its policies, it is questionable whether any change will happen anytime soon.
