On Monday, as the European Union (EU) was preparing to pass a resolution stipulating that any agreements with Israel will not apply to Judea and Samaria, the Shomron Regional Council hosted senior journalists from France, an EU analyst and a NATO researcher.
The guests were given a tour of the Samaria region and heard from Yossi Dagan, the head of the Shomron Regional Council, about the feelings of local residents in the wake of the constant attacks on communities in the area.
Dagan told his guests, which included journalists from the Les Echos newspaper as well as from Radio Europe 1 and France Culture, that he was “sad to see the mechanism of the European Union; on the one hand the EU Foreign Minister holds discussions with the Foreign Minister of Iran which seeks to destroy Israel, and on the other hand calling to label products from Judea and Samaria where the most coexistence can be found. There is some hypocrisy there."
Among the guests was Dr. Florence Gaub, a Senior Analyst at the European Union Institute for Security Studies, for whom it was the first visit to the Shomron region.
“It’s been a lovely visit so far...I’ve been welcomed by a lot of people - politicians, businessmen - so I feel very welcome,” she said.
“Visits on the ground always inform decisions,” continued Dr. Gaub. “It always looks different when you’re here, and I think Europeans generally don’t know what it’s like to live here and to live under the threat that Israelis live. That goes without saying.”
“I think that the Foreign Affairs Council will come to a decision that ultimately will reach out to Israel, because it’s not in the interests of the EU either to let things escalate further,” she added.