EU guidelines on Israeli settlements send out powerful message
European policy guidelines are composed of small print and impenetrable bureaucratic language that are the product of long hours of wrangling in committee rooms in Brussels, but they can still send out a powerful signal. The furious reaction of the Israeli government underlines an important point about the world's most intractable conflict: Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territory are not considered part of the state of Israel under international law. This explicit restatement of the EU's position is intended to force an end to the ambiguity that has helped Israel to maintain and expand its presence beyond the old "green line" border since the 1967 Middle East war – without incurring significant costs. The EU's "territorial applicability clause" spells out that there can be consequences for flouting UN resolutions and international legality.
RINF.com: Israel required to recognize occupations