When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said ahead of his visit to Britain that Europe should see Israel as a partner in confronting terrorism rather than criticizing it for its policy toward the Palestinians, which policy was it that Netanyahu was referring to? Was it the collapse of the peace talks with the Palestinians last year, for which Israel was responsible; the subsequent 50-day blitz against Gaza last summer; continued Israeli settlement building; Jewish extremist price tag attacks on Palestinians; the continued US-Israeli embargo of Gaza; or Netanyahu's ruling out the establishment of a Palestinian state on his watch? Put all together, this adds up to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, a fact from which Israel cannot escape. His comments are an attempt to shift the focus of discussion away from the Israeli occupation, its restrictions on the Gaza Strip and the need for a return to peace talks with the Palestinians, who seek statehood in the two territories. But it is awfully difficult for Netanyahu to draw attention away from what he is doing to the Palestinians, and in many cases, what he is not doing to help. While he has called the recent arson attack which killed a three-member Palestinian family - an infant and his parents - an “act of terrorism” and has made some arrests, his promises ring hollow. Another attack is far more likely than another arrest. Israel's suffocating eight-year economic blockade and three full-scale military conflicts in six years have put the Palestinians through their worst economic recession since 2006. They have resulted in the killing and maiming of thousands of innocents, displacement and disruption of livelihoods, the entrenchment of poverty and increased aid dependency. This is most painfully felt in Gaza where GDP per capita is 72 percent of its 1993 level, when the Oslo Accords were signed, and two thirds of that of the West Bank. The Palestinian economy as a whole has contracted by 0.4 percent, shrinking GDP per capita by 3.3 percent in 2014. These socio-economic woes — described by a UN report as the worst since 1967 — have destroyed infrastructure, food shortages and displaced populations. In return for Israel's consistent violations of Palestinian rights, Europe is pursuing plans to enforce the labeling of products made in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, to make clear that they are made on occupied land, not in Israel. This is Netanyahu's particular complaint while in Europe. Specific labeling of exports such as food and flowers would give shoppers the choice of whether to support the settlements or boycott them. Israel would prefer that products from those areas continue to bear the “Made in Israel” label; however, the EC has other ideas. Because it has consistently condemned Israeli settlement building as a threat to the Middle East peace process through eroding the basis for a future Palestinian state, and since the EU views Israeli settlements, civilian communities on areas including the West Bank, as a breach of international law, it is sanctioning an important trade partner. That should tell Netanyahu something. He must also be aware that more than 100,000 people in Britain have signed a petition calling for him to be arrested for war crimes over the devastation he wrought on Gaza last year, not to mention the thousands of people who gathered outside Downing Street to protest against Netanyahu's invitation to London. The protests should tell Netanyahu why his actions fuel so much criticism from his allies, sometimes more so than from his enemies.