Veterans of the extreme-right nationalist Azov Battalion, a unit of Ukraines national guard, hold a rally in the capital Kiev, 14 March 2020. Far-right and neo-Nazi organizations played a key role in the Western-backed overthrow of Ukraines president in 2014, leading to the current crisis.
Just a day after Moscow recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk from Ukraine, the European Union came out swinging against what it characterized as Russian aggression.
It condemned Moscows move as illegal and unacceptable and vowed swift sanctions to target those who were involved in the illegal decision.
The measures will also hit banks that are financing Russian military and other operations in those territories and aim to thwart the ability of the Russian state and government to access the EUs capital and financial markets and services.
The US is also laying out sanctions in response to what Washington describes as a Russian invasion of the two eastern regions that have been under the control of pro-Russian separatists since 2014.
Germany, which is largely dependent on gas supplies from Russia, announced the suspension of plans to build the Nordstream 2 pipeline.
The crisis in Ukraine today can be traced to American sponsorship of the 2014 coup against the countrys elected pro-Russian president that brought far-right and even neo-Nazi Ukrainian nationalists to power.
Washingtons goal has been to bring Ukraine into the anti-Russia NATO military alliance something Moscow sees as an existential threat and is strongly opposed by many among Ukraines large ethnic Russian population.
Yet the sudden concern for international law regarding Ukraine is nowhere to be found when it comes to Israels illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian and Syrian land, and its imposition of an apartheid regime on the entire Palestinian people a crime against humanity.
These Israeli crimes could of course not be perpetrated without American and European support or acquiescence.
When the Trump administration moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2017, effectively recognizing Israels illegal annexation of the city, the EU rejected the move.
The EU also rejected the 2019 US recognition of Israels illegal annexation of Syrias occupied Golan Heights.
Ironically, one of the handful of countries ready to follow the US in recognizing Israels illegal annexation of Jerusalem is none other than the US and EU-backed government in Ukraine.
Indeed, Biden himself maintains an illegal US occupation of parts of Syria.
Under Trump, its explicit purpose was to plunder the countrys oil.
Yet the European Union, which has criticized both the US and Russia for their actions, has not imposed any sanctions on Washington for aiding and abetting Israels crimes.
That is hardly surprising. For decades, the European Union has acknowledged that Israels occupation, theft and annexation of Palestinian land is illegal, but instead of sanctioning it, Brussels rewards and encourages it.
For us as Palestinians, we see this discussion and we ask ourselves, where is this discussion when it comes to Palestine? Wesam Ahmad, of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, said on Tuesday.
Ahmad was speaking during a webinar hosted by Finnish lawmaker Veronika Honkasalo, focusing on a bill she has introduced to ban trade in goods from occupied territories.
The occupation of Palestinian territory has been going on for a much longer period of time, Ahmad observed.
He said that the persistent lack of action in response to Israels violations of Palestinian rights and international law undermines the credibility of the rule of law being something that applies across the board.
Frustrated with the complicity, hypocrisy and unaccountability of their leaders, people across the continent are launching a European Citizens Initiative to force Brussels to close European markets to products and services from settlements in occupied territories, including Israeli colonies on Palestinian and Syrian land.
A European Citizens Initiative is a formal process that is meant to allow citizens to influence EU policy. It requires gathering the signatures of at least a million people from across the bloc.
This one has already passed the first hurdle of being formally registered by the European Commission, the EUs executive body.
That came after the Commission had refused to register a similar initiative in 2019, a decision that was overturned last year when organizers went to court.
Even though illegal settlements constitute a war crime under international law, the EU allows trade with them, said the European Legal Support Center, one of 100 organizations urging EU citizens to sign on to the initiative.
Human Rights Watch one of several major human rights groups that over the last year have concluded that Israel perpetrates the crime against humanity of apartheid is also backing the initiative.
Settlements unlawfully rob local populations of their land, resources and livelihoods, Bruno Stagno, chief advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch, stated. No country should be enabling the trade in goods produced as a result of land theft, displacement and discrimination.
Frances Black, an Irish senator who sponsored legislation in her country to ban trade in settlement goods, is also urging support for the initiative.
Meanwhile, the similar bill in Finland is coming up for its first vote on Friday. It has secured 35 sponsors out of Finlands 200 members of parliament.
If it passes, this would be only the first step towards becoming law.
More than 40 Palestinian human rights, political and cultural organizations have written to Finnish MPs. In a letter seen by The Electronic Intifada, they urge lawmakers to support the bill, calling it a crucial opportunity for Finland to lead by example on complying with relevant obligations under international human rights and international humanitarian law.
In September, the European Court of Justice annulled an EU trade deal with Morocco because it included Western Sahara without the consent of its people and their internationally recognized representatives, the Polisario Front.
During Tuesdays seminar hosted by Finnish MP Honkasalo, Salah Abdulahe Mohamed, an advocate for Sahrawi self-determination, charged that the EU continues to allow the import of goods plundered from Sahrawi territory such as sardines and tomatoes that are falsely labeled as products of Morocco.
The European Citizens Initiative that would stop trade with Israels settlements faces an enormous uphill battle. Of course, it would not even be necessary if EU governments really respected the norms they now accuse Russia of violating.
But time and again, international law proves not to be a yardstick against which all are measured, but a club used by the strong exclusively for their own advantage.
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Ukraine crisis highlights West's hypocrisy over Israeli land theft - The Electronic Intifada
