European Resources

European Coalition for Israel was founded in Brussels, and the European Union remains to this date the core of the EU vision and work. Through our issue briefs and position papers we seek to present new perspectives on the Middle East, which can enrich the policy debate at EU level.

Understanding European
policy towards Israel

The Yom Kippur War: A Turning point

By Andrew Tucker – ECI Legal Counsel

Official EU policy today is that Israel must not “take any steps that may threaten the possibility of a two-state solution”. The EU refers to the 1949 Armistice Lines as the “pre-1967 borders” and considers all of the territories over which Israel took control in June 1967 (including “East Jerusalem” and all of the West Bank) as “Occupied Palestinian Territories” that “belong” to the future Palestinian state. Accordingly, Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem is regarded as illegal and Jerusalem must be divided and become the capital of both Israel and the new Palestinian state.

In these presentations, we examine the roots of the EU’s policies towards East Jerusalem and the West Bank. We argue that these policies are based on political and economic considerations following the Yom Kippur War of October 1973. Instead of reflecting international law, as the EU claims, many aspects of the EU’s position contravene international law.

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How did the Yom Kippur War affect relations between the EU and the Middle East?

1917 – 1947: Introduction to the legal and political foundations of Jerusalem and the West Bank

1947 – 1967: Historical, political and legal aspects of these territories following the creation of the State of Israel

1967 – now: How the Yom Kippur War (1973) laid the basis of the EU’s new common policy on Jerusalem, the “Occupied Territories” and Palestinian statehood