BRUSSELS - Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has said outsiders cannot tell him where his country begins or ends in reaction to new EU guidelines on settlements.
Speaking in a 40-second-long TV clip in Hebrew on Tuesday (16 July), he noted: "I will not let anybody harm Israelis living in Judea and Samaria, the Golan and Jerusalem … We will not accept any external dictates regarding borders."
He added the EU should focus on Iran's alleged nuclear weapons programme and Syria's civil war instead of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
"I expect those who want peace in the region to deal with settlements after they solve the Syria crisis and the Iranian threat," he said.
His remarks come after revelations in Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the European Commission on 28 June quietly adopted new guidelines on EU funding in the region.
According to the rules, EU institutions will from 2014 onward refuse to co-fund projects unless Israel gives legal guarantees that none of the money will go to entities whose official seat is beyond the 1967 green line.
"The purpose of these guidelines is to make a distinction between the state of Israel and the occupied territories when it comes to EU support," the EU delegation in Tel Aviv said in a statement also on Tuesday.
The EU and the UN say the Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Syria's Golan Heights, were illegally occupied by Israel after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
But Israel, which refers to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria and which claims Jerusalem as its "indivisible" capital, says they are not under occupation because there is no such thing as a Palestinian state.
It says it needs to keep the Golan Heights as a buffer against a potential Syrian attack.
It also says its final borders can only be agreed in bilateral talks with Palestinians.
Euobserver
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