Pictured Above: European Union flags in front of the European Commission building in Brussels. Credit: Amio Cajander via Wikimedia Commons.

(JNS) The Israeli government has reportedly signed an agreement with the European Union (EU) in which Israel unknowingly recognized “Palestine” and granted the Palestinian Authority (PA) a foothold in Jerusalem.

The agreement, dubbed “Transboundary Cooperation Program in the Mediterranean Basin,” aims to fund various multi-million-dollar projects in the Middle East—including in Israel and PA-controlled territory—for 14 EU states, Israel National News reported Thursday.

The deal recognizes the PA as a political body and bars Israeli entities in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights from receiving funding and participating in the program. 

Further, the pact essentially enables the PA to pursue projects in areas defined as being under Israeli sovereignty in the Oslo Accords and other agreements, including Israeli-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. 

According to the report, several Israeli government ministers who signed the agreement did not give the document a full review and were surprised to learn of some of its provisions. Israel’s Culture Minister Miri Regev was among the only cabinet ministers to take issue with the agreement’s terminology prior to Israel’s signing of the deal.

Before the pact was signed, leading representatives of Judea and Samaria’s Jewish communities, including the Knesset’s Yesha lobby and the Yesha Council, reportedly sent letters to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that the EU document “expresses agreement with a boycott of many areas in the State of Israel and severe discrimination against Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley.”

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