Israel becoming ‘pariah’, says MP

A member of the Israeli Parliament has described his country as becoming a ‘pariah’ state following the EU’s announcement of new Settlement Guidelines.

Ofer Shelah made the comments as the EU’s new rules for receiving Union funding excluded any money going to institutions operating in the Gaza Strip, West Bank or Golan Heights. The Israeli government has said it will reject the new guidelines in the current form.

In comments carried on the member’s Facebook page, Shelah said: “The price of occupation that…used to be some abstract, philosophical notion, nowadays is concrete, obvious – and unbearable.

“The western world that is our frame of reference, the world with whom our relations nourish our technological and economic power, says to us in word and deed that we will no longer be able to belong to it while continuing our control over another people.”

The Knesset member said that not participating in Horizon 2020 meant being excluded from key international research projects.

“We know where to get money. But it means that we shall also be disconnected from the most important projects, those that are irreplaceable: all the money in the world will not give us a particle accelerator the likes of the Swiss, where we shall no longer share the research it bears,” Shelah added.

The Yesh Atid party, of which Shelah is a member, is a key party in the ruling Israeli government coalition. The leader of the party, Yair Lapid, was recently made the country’s new Finance Minister.