The justifications put forward by European powers for their failure to reign in Israel’s defiance of international law usually centres around Israeli security or the corruption of the Palestinian leadership. A vote in the European Parliament, over a little known conflict in North Africa, shows these reasons up for the flimsy excuses they are.

Western Sahara has been occupied for 30 years by Morocco, after the latter signed a secret and illegal deal with the territory’s colonial master Spain, in the very final act of the Francoist government. Every year the UN reaffirms the right of Western Sahara to self-determination and they have had a Mission on the ground for nearly 15 years to organise a referendum. 165,000 Saharawi refugees have created a democratic and educated society in exile in the Algerian desert, laying down their arms, denouncing forever the use of terrorism, simply asking the international community to help them return to their homeland. Yet instead of championing this seemingly exemplary resistance movement, the European Union has continued to arm the Occupier while building ever closer economic and political ties.

As if this were not bad enough, the European Parliament today voted to steal the resources of the Saharawi people from under their noses. The vote concerned the signing of a Fisheries Agreement with Morocco. Such Agreements are not uncommon, but this one has a difference – it fails to specify the Southern limit of its operation, thereby allowing Morocco to define the extent of its territory and effectively allow European boats to fish in the very rich but also very occupied territorial waters of Western Sahara. On 16 May Parliamentarians had the opportunity to vote on a Green/ GUE (left) amendment which would have made the issue clear – and excluded Western Sahara from the operation of the Agreement. Despite resistance from close to 200 MEPs; pressure from Member States like Sweden, Finland and Ireland; rebels from both Socialist and Conservative groups; and despite a campaign coalition drawn from 19 EU countries, the Parliament rejected the Amendment. At the end of the day the profits of the European fishing industry were simply too important to jeopardise for the sake of international law and 165,000 refugees.

The matter will now go to the Council of Ministers on Monday, but no great hope is being placed there. The UK Government has already said that despite clear opposition from the Polisario Front, the representatives of the Saharawi people, they are unlikely to amend the Agreement, or even to include a statement on the rights of the Saharawi people and the need to end the Occupation. Other argue that the Saharawi people still living in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara will benefit from the Agreement. The truth is that European fishing corporations will be the real beneficiaries of this Agreement, together with the Moroccan Generals who control the industry in Western Sahara.

The refugees, far from seeing any benefit, realise that the EU has given Morocco just one more reason to flout international law. Only one month ago Moroccan King Mohamed VI made a controversial visit to the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara, which sparked demonstrations and mass detentions by the Moroccan security forces. Mohamed made clear that while he supported some degree of autonomy, Morocco would not “give up one inch of soil” in the Western Sahara.

It seems that neither the existence nor absence of terrorism, corruption or any other charge which can be levelled against a resistance movement, makes any difference to the European Commission in its desire to uphold international law. The issue boils down very simply to the question of self-interest.

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