Luxembourg’s foreign minister Jean Asselborn is a highly respected statesman in the European Union’s foreign affairs community, boasting disproportionate influence over its international relations his country’s miniature size.
The politician boasts a reputation of being anti-Israel and is among the EU’s most outspoken opponents of Israel’s sovereignty plans for Judea and Samaria.
The 71-year-old Asselborn was also behind a failed effort to issue a joint EU statement warning Jerusalem against annexation. According to reports, he has called on his colleagues to recognize a Palestinian state in case Israel executes its plan to apply sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and other parts of Judea and Samaria.
In a recent interview with German news magazine Der Spiegel, Asselborn not only warned that asserting sovereignty violates international law, but also claimed that it was a Biblical sin.
“In the Middle East, which is strongly shaped by religion, one could also say that an annexation violates the seventh of the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt not steal. An annexation of parts of the West Bank would be just that: stealing,” he said.
In response, The Times of Israel reached out to Asselborn for clarification asking if he really thinks that Israel is in violation of the Ten Commandments if they assert sovereignty over the Jewish people’s biblical homeland.
And so, when Asselborn was compelled to respond, he admitted his ignorance of the Bible saying: “I am not an expert in theology.”
He then said: “I think that in all cultures and religions, there is a well-established norm against theft.”
Although he may be correct in theory, according to that same Bible that Asselborn is quoting from, the notion of the Jewish people asserting sovereignty over Judea and Samaria not only doesn’t qualify as theft, but is a commandment – just as important if not more than the violation against theft.
and said to you: You shall possess their land, for I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I Hashem am your God who has set you apart from other peoples. (Leviticus 20:24)
This commandment is repeated throughout the Bible in other verses including Genesis 28, Exodus 23, Numbers 33 and Deuteronomy 16.
“This is one of the basic norms of human coexistence and a fundamental principle of international law. The acquisition of territory by force is inadmissible,” the Foreign Minister said.
Asselborn seems to have forgotten that the territory in question is already controlled by Israel.
“Notwithstanding the Ten Commandments,” he added, “seizing territory by force is a violation of Israel’s obligations under the UN Charter as well as the Geneva Conventions, and goes against a host of UN Security Council resolutions.”
In response, vice president of the Religious Zionists of America Stephen M. Flatow said in a recent op ed that: “In 1659, France seized 410 square miles of Luxembourg’s territory. That was one-tenth of the entire country.” One wonders why this land grab is of no concern to Asselborn.
He also threatened that such a move would “make it very difficult for the EU and Israel to enter into future agreements and implement existing ones.”
Annexation may also result in a “one-state reality, made of unequal rights and perpetual conflict” replacing the two-state solution, Asselborn said.
