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India reiterates support for independent Palestine nation

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India's Deputy Permanent Representative Bhagwant S. Bishnoi (Credit: United Nations file photo)

India’s Deputy Permanent Representative Bhagwant S. Bishnoi (Credit: United Nations file photo)

United Nations: Following External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj’s reiteration that New Delhi’s policy towards Palestine is unchanged, India pledged Tuesday support for an independent Palestine nation “at peace with Israel” and urged them to resume the peace process for a comprehensive solution.

“We firmly believe that dialogue is the only viable option in the search for a just, durable and comprehensive peaceful solution of the Palestinian issue,” Deputy Permanent Representative Bhagwant S. Bishnoi told a high level conference here. “We call for all to show restraint, to avoid provocation and unilateral actions and to return to the peace process.”

The measured statement came two days after India announced that Narendra Modi would soon become the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel. Disclosing the planned trip, Swaraj declared Sunday, “There was no change in India’s policy towards Palestine.”

Bishnoi said at the UN, “India supports a negotiated solution, resulting in a sovereign, independent, viable and united State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, living within secure and recognized borders, side by side and at peace with Israel.”

Tuesday’s conference was organised to mark the 65 years of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). It was “unfortunate,” Bishnoi said, “sixty five years have passed without finding an amicable solution to the Palestine Question.”

India, he said, contributes $1 million annually to UNRWA, has pledged $4 million to the National Early Recovery and Reconstruction Plan for Gaza, and is working jointly with Brazil and South Africa on development projects in Palestine.

(IANS)

Vatican recognises State of Palestine

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Agreement reached over Catholic Church’s activities in areas controlled by Palestinian Authority, statement says.

The Vatican's official newspaper said it hoped the accord would indirectly help the Palestinian State in its relations with Israel [AP]

The Vatican’s official newspaper said it hoped the accord would indirectly help the Palestinian State in its relations with Israel [AP]

by Al Jazeera

The Vatican has concluded its first treaty that formally recognises the State of Palestine, with an agreement on Catholic Church activities in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, according to the Holy See.

A joint statement released by the Vatican said on Wednesday said the text of the treaty had been concluded and would be officially signed by the respective authorities “in the near future”.

The agreement “aims to enhance the life and activities of the Catholic Church and its recognition at the judicial level”, said Monsignor Antoine Camilleri, the Vatican’s deputy foreign minister who led its delegation in the talks.

Vatican officials stressed that although the agreement was significant, it certainly did not constitute the Holy See’s first recognition of the State of Palestine.

“We have recognised the State of Palestine ever since it was given recognition by the United Nations and it is already listed as the State of Palestine in our official yearbook,” Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesperson, said.

On November 29, 2012, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution recognising Palestine as an observer non-member state.

This was welcomed at the time by the Vatican, which has the same observer non-member status at the UN.

During a three-day visit to the Middle East a year ago, Pope Francis delighted his Palestinian hosts by referring to the “state of Palestine”, giving support for their bid for full statehood recognition.

The Palestinian delegation was led by Ambassador Rawan Sulaiman, the assistant minister for foreign affairs.

In an interview with the Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano , Camilleri said he hoped the agreement would indirectly help the Palestinian State in its relations with Israel.

“It would be positive if the accord could in some way help with the establishment and recognition of an independent, sovereign and democratic State of Palestine which lives in peace and security with Israel and its neighbours,” he said.

Hanan Ashrawi, PLO executive committee member, welcomed the Vatican’s recognition of the state of Palestine.

In a statement, Ashrawi said: “The significance of this recognition goes beyond the political and legal into the symbolic and moral domains and sends a message to all people of conscience that the Palestinian people deserve the right to self-determination, formal recognition, freedom and statehood.”

Benjamin Netanyahu wins elections

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Prime Minister’s right-wing Likud party wins surprise victory, sweeping past rival Zionist Union in bitter campaign.

Benjamin-Netanyahu

by Patrick Strickland, Al Jazeera

Haifa: With more than 99 percent of the votes tallied, Israel’s incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears poised to retain his office and form the next government.

Though the final campaign polls showed Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party trailing behind the centre-left Zionist Union, headed by Isaac Herzog, Likud gained 30 seats, six more than its main competitor, according to official results released on Wednesday.

The Joint Arab Coalition, an electoral alliance of four Palestinian-majority parties in Israel, pulled 14 seats, and Yesh Atid, the centrist party headed by former finance minister Yair Lapid, earned 11 seats. Kulanu, a right-wing breakaway party led by former Likud member Moshe Kahlon, took ten seats.

A number of smaller, mostly right-wing parties were unable to break the single digits: Jewish Home earned eight seats, the religious Shas and United Torah parties each got seven and the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu has six seats.

The left-wing Zionist party Meretz walked away with four seats.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has called for a national unity government including both Likud and the Zionist Union, but that prospect is unpopular with most Jewish Israeli voters.

According to a poll conducted by Israel’s Channel 10, 53 percent of Jewish Israelis oppose such a coalition.

Some analysts expect Netanyahu to cobble together a coalition with right-wing and religious parties.

The Likud party announced on Wednesday morning that Netanyahu has reached out to leaders of the parties with which he hopes to form a coalition: the Jewish Home party, Kulanu, Yisrael Beitenu, Shas and the United Torah Party

Palestinian state?

Zionist Union MK Revital Swid worried that restarting negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority would be difficult under another Netanyahu-led government.

“Regarding security, we all understand that there are challenges in the north and the south of Israel,” she told Al Jazeera. “But people want to see a start of negotiations [with the Palestinians] and putting the peace process back on track.”

“Talking to our neighbours will bring a better life here,” Swid added.

Yet, Netanyahu declared on Monday his intention to block the establishment of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

“I think that anyone who moves to establish a Palestinian state and evacuate territory gives territory away to radical Islamist attacks against Israel,” Netanyahu said. “The left has buried its head in the sand time after time and ignores this, but we are realistic and understand.”

Dimi Reider, an Israeli journalist and researcher at the European Council on Foreign Affairs, expects Netanyahu “to do much of the same, only quicker” now that he has maintained his position as prime minister.

“More of the same, though, doesn’t mean the situation is static,” Reider told Al Jazeera. “The international pressure will increase.”

“He won’t outright announce a one-state solution and annexation because the illusion of the possibility of a two-state solution is what has allowed Israel to implement his de-facto one-state solution,” he remarked.

Joint Arab List

As electoral turnout polls poured in on Tuesday afternoon, Netanyahu appealed to right-wing voters to cast their ballots, citing the high turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel.

An estimated 1.7 million Palestinians carry Israeli citizenship and live in cities, towns and villages across the country.

Nadim Nashif, director of Baladna, a Haifa-based Arab youth advocacy organisation, expects Netanyahu’s new government to continue introducing discriminatory laws that target Israel’s Palestinian minority.

“This is the true test of the international community,” he said. “Will they do something about it now? Or will they stand by like before?”

Alluding to the results, Nashif argues that a national unity coalition between Netanyahu and Herzog is unlikely. “Thus, the Zionist Union is likely lead the opposition and not the Joint Arab List,” he told Al Jazeera.

Analysts have speculated as to whether the Joint Arab List will be able to stay intact, given the sharp ideological divides between the parties, which include socialists, nationalists and Islamists.

Acknowledging the “serious differences between those parties,” Nashif said: “I think the Joint Arab List will stay intact because they have to. They have to stay together for future elections because the electoral threshold requires it.”

“In any case, the differences are good because they reflect the diversity of our community,” he said. “I don’t see it as a bad thing.”

 

On Eve of Election, Netanyahu Promises No Palestinian State If Re-Elected

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Under political pressure, Israeli prime minister admitted publicly what has long been evidenced by behavior

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters at his office in Jerusalem. (Photo: Reuters)

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters at his office in Jerusalem. (Photo: Reuters)

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

On the eve of national elections in Israel, politically-embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that if he and his Likud Party were returned to power for another term he would make sure that an independent Palestinian state would not come into being.

The comments come as a reversal of official Israeli government policy which, like the U.S. government, states that a two-state solution is the preferred outcome for the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

As the New York Times reports:

Mr. Netanyahu made the assertion on the eve of an election in which he is trailing in the polls. He has been campaigning aggressively, appealing to conservatives for support.

“I think that anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state today and evacuate lands, is giving attack grounds to the radical Islam against the state of Israel,” he said in a video interview published on the NRG website. “Anyone who ignores this is sticking his head in the sand. The left does this time and time again. We are realistic and understand.”

Asked if he meant that a Palestinian state would not be established if he were to continue as Israel’s prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu replied: “Correct.”

Netanyahu’s comments on Monday come a day after stating that his government, if it remains in power, will not be afraid to build new settlements in East Jerusalem and across the occupied territories. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the rightful capital of a future Palestinian state.

“My friends and I in Likud will preserve the unity of Jerusalem,” he said. “We will continue to build in Jerusalem, we will add thousands of housing units, and in the face of all the (international) pressure, we will persist and continue to develop our eternal capital.”

Reaction on Twitter was quick to acknowledge that few ever thought Netanyahu had any commitment—official or otherwise—to what is called the two-state solution. As journalist Murtaza Hussein tweeted with implied sarcasm:

The Associated Press adds:

Tuesday’s election caps an acrimonious three-month campaign that is widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu. The hard-line leader has portrayed himself as the only politician capable of confronting Israel’s numerous security challenges, while his opponents have focused on the country’s high cost of living and presented Netanyahu as imperious and out of touch with the common man. As Netanyahu’s poll numbers have dropped in recent days, he has appeared increasingly desperate, stepping up his nationalistic rhetoric in a series of interviews to local media to appeal to his core base. Netanyahu has also complained of an international conspiracy to oust him, funded by wealthy foreigners who dislike him, and on Sunday night, he addressed an outdoor rally before tens of thousands of hard-line supporters in Tel Aviv. The strategy is aimed at siphoning off voters from nationalistic rivals, but risks alienating centrist voters who are expected to determine the outcome of the race.

When it comes to establishing a viable and equitable Palestinian state, author and rights activist Ali Abunimah also took to Twitter in the wake of Netanyahu’s comments to point out that Likud’s largest political rival in this election, the newly formed Zionist Union coalition, is not itself likely to make any substantial moves toward supporting a settlement with the Palestinians or ending the occupation of the West Bank. 

UNSC rejects resolution on Palestinian state

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Bid to end Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories by 2017 garners eight votes, one short of total needed to pass.

The Palestinian leadership has once again demonstrated its capacity to blow lots of smoke with no fire [AFP]

The Palestinian leadership has once again demonstrated its capacity to blow lots of smoke with no fire [AFP]

by Al Jazeera

The UN Security Council has rejected a Palestinian resolution calling for peace with Israel within a year and an end to Israel’s occupation by 2017.

The resolution failed to muster the minimum nine “yes” votes required in the council for adoption.

The motion received eight “yes” votes, including from Russia and France, two “no” votes from the United States and Australia, and five abstentions.

Riyad Mansour, Palestinian ambassador to the UN, criticised the world body for the failure of the vote.

“The Security Council has once again failed to uphold its charter duties to address this crises and to meaningfully contribute to a lasting solution in accordance with its own resolutions,” Mansour said.

“This year, our people under Israeli occupation endured the further theft and colonisation of their land, the demolition of their homes, daily military raids, arrests and detention of thousands of civilians including children, rampant settler terrorism, constant affronts to their human dignity and repeated incursions at our holiest sites.”

Following the vote, the US, Israel’s closest ally, reiterated its opposition to the draft resolution.

Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, said the resolution undermined efforts to “achieve two states for two people”.

“It is deeply imbalanced and contains many elements that are not conducive to negotiations between the parties including unconstructive deadlines that take no account for Israelis legitimate security concerns,” she said.

Palestinian statehood

The resolution, which was submitted by Jordan – currently the only Arab member of the security council -had called for occupied East Jerusalem to be the capital of Palestine, an end to Israeli settlement building and settling the issue of Palestinian prisoner releases.

The resolution also called for negotiations to be based on territorial lines that existed before Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in 1967.

Israel had said the Security Council vote, following the collapse in April of US-brokered talks on Palestinian statehood, would deepen the conflict.

Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, derided the resolution, telling Al Jazeera it undermined Palestinian rights, including the rights of refugees and the future of Jerusalem.

“This was a terrible resolution which was unaninimously opposed by every major Palestinian faction, it contained so many compromises in an attempt to avoid a US veto that it was weaker than existing UN resolutions,” he said.

The Palestinians, frustrated by the lack of progress on peace talks, have sought to internationalise the issue by seeking UN membership and recognition of statehood via membership in international organisations.

Several European parliaments have adopted non-binding motions calling for recognition of Palestine.

The Palestinians had warned that if the UN resolution failed they were prepared to join the International Criminal Court to file suits against Israel.

UN Security Council vote on Palestinian draft resolution

YES: Jordan, China, France, Russia, Luxembourg, Chad, Chile, Argentina.

NO: United States, Australia.

ABSTAINED: United Kingdom, Lithuania, Nigeria, South Korea, Rwanda.

U.S feels the heat on Palestine vote at UN

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US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Villa Taverna in Rome, Dec. 15, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Evan Vucci)

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Villa Taverna in Rome, Dec. 15, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Evan Vucci)

by Jonathan Cook

Nazareth: The floodgates have begun to open across Europe on recognition of Palestinian statehood. On Friday the Portuguese parliament became the latest European legislature to call on its government to back statehood, joining Sweden, Britain, Ireland, France and Spain.

In coming days similar moves are expected in Denmark and from the European Parliament. The Swiss government will join the fray too this week, inviting states that have signed the Fourth Geneva Convention to an extraordinary meeting to discuss human rights violations in the occupied territories. Israel has threatened retaliation.

But while Europe is tentatively finding a voice in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, silence reigns across the Atlantic. The White House appears paralysed, afraid to appear out of sync with world opinion but more afraid still of upsetting Israel and its powerful allies in the US Congress.

Now there is an additional complicating factor. The Israeli public, due to elect a new Israeli government in three months’ time, increasingly regards the US role as toxic. A poll this month found that 52 per cent viewed President Barack Obama’s diplomatic policy as “bad”, and 37 per cent thought he had a negative attitude towards their country – more than double the figure two years ago.

US Secretary of State John Kerry alluded to the White House’s difficulties this month when he addressed the Saban Forum, an annual gathering of US policy elites to discuss the Middle East. He promised that Washington would not interfere in Israel’s elections.

According to the Israeli media, he was responding to pressure from Tzipi Livni, sacked this month from Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, triggering the forthcoming election, and opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog, of the centre-left Labor party.

The pair recently made a pact in an effort to oust Netanyahu. Their electoral success – improbable at the moment – offers the White House its best hope of an Israeli government that will at least pay lip service to a renewal of peace negotiations, which collapsed last April. They have warned, however, that any sign of backing from the Obama administration would be the kiss of death at the polls.

US officials would like to see Netanyahu gone, not least because he has been the biggest obstacle to reviving a peace process that for two decades successfully allayed international pressure to create a Palestinian state. But any visible strategy against Netanyahu is almost certain to backfire.

Washington’s difficulties are only underscored by the Palestinians’ threat to bring a draft resolution before the UN Security Council as soon as this week, demanding Israel’s withdrawal by late 2016 to the 1967 lines.

Given the current climate, the Palestinians are hopeful of winning the backing of European states, especially the three key ones in the Security Council – Britain, France and Germany – and thereby isolating the US. Arab foreign ministers met Kerry on Tuesday in an effort to persuade Washington not to exercise its veto.

The US, meanwhile, is desperately trying to postpone a vote, fearful that casting its veto might further discredit it in the eyes of the world while also suggesting to Israeli voters that Netanyahu has the White House in his pocket.

But indulging the Israeli right also has risks, bolstering it by default. That danger was driven home during another session of the Saban Forum, addressed by settler leader Naftali Bennett. He is currently riding high in the polls and will likely be the backbone of the next coalition government.

Bennett says clearly what Netanyahu only implies: that most of the West Bank should be annexed, with the Palestinians given demilitarised islands of territory that lack sovereignty. The model, called “autonomy”, is of the Palestinians ruling over a series of local councils.

The Washington audience was further shocked by Bennett’s disrespectful treatment of his interviewer, Martin Indyk, who served as Obama’s representative at the last round of peace talks. He accused Indyk of not living in the real world, dismissively calling him part of the “peace industry”.

Bennett’s goal, according to analysts, was to prove to Israeli voters that he is not afraid to stand up to the Americans.

Given its weakening hand – faced with an ever-more rightwing Israeli public and a more assertive European one – Washington is looking towards an unlikely saviour. The hawkish foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman used to be its bete noire, but he has been carefully recalibrating his image.

Unlike other candidates, he has been aggressively promoting a “peace plan”. The US has barely bothered examining its contents, which are only a little more generous than Bennett’s annexation option, and involve forcibly stripping hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Israel of their citizenship.

Lieberman, however, has usefully created the impression that he is a willing partner to a peace process. At the weekend he even suggested he might join a centre coalition with Livni and Herzog.

Lieberman is cleverly trying to occupy a middle ground with Israeli voters, demonstrating that he can placate the Americans, while offering a plan so unfair to the Palestinians that there is no danger voters will consider him part of the “peace industry”.

That may fit the electoral mood: a recent poll showed 63 per cent of Israelis favour peace negotiations, but 70 per cent think they are doomed to fail. The Israeli public, like Lieberman, understands that the Palestinians will never agree to the kind of subjugation they are being offered.

The Israeli election’s one certain outcome is that, whoever wins, the next coalition will, actively or passively, allow more of the same: a slow, creeping annexation of what is left of a possible Palestinian state, as the US and Europe bicker.

Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website is www.jonathan-cook.net.

A version of this article first appeared in The National, Abu Dhabi.

Palestine to submit UN resolution for ending Israeli occupation

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PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat (right), is due to meet US Secretary of State John Kerry within the coming days to discuss ending Israeli occupation. (AFP/File)

PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat (right), is due to meet US Secretary of State John Kerry within the coming days to discuss ending Israeli occupation. (AFP/File)

by Ma’an News Agency

PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said Sunday that a resolution to end the Israeli occupation will be submitted to the UN Security Council “in the coming few hours, or maybe on Monday.”

Erekat told the official Palestinian radio station that he would meet US Secretary of State John Kerry in a European capital in the coming two days.

“We want a clear and specific resolution for a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, resolving all the final status issues, releasing all detainees and refugees and labeling settlement activity illegal and should be stopped immediately, including in Jerusalem,” Erekat said.

Kerry left early Sunday for a series of meetings in Europe seeking to head off an end-of-year UN showdown over the Palestinian bid for statehood.

His first stop was to be Rome where he will meet separately with both Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Diplomats say negotiations on a UN resolution to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects are making little headway, with Europeans waiting for a US response to proposals.

Jordan last month circulated a draft Palestinian text to the Security Council setting November 2016 as a deadline for the end of the Israeli occupation.

But the text ran into opposition from the United States, which has veto power, and other countries that felt it lacked balance, diplomats said. It was never put to a vote.

France stepped in last month to try to cobble together along with Britain and Germany a resolution that would win consensus at the 15-member council.

And the Palestinians have said they would like a draft resolution to go to a vote before the end of the year.

The text would call for a return to negotiations with a view to achieving a two-state solution by which Israel and a Palestinian state would co-exist.

Negotiations have hit hurdles over whether to include a two-year deadline for talks on a final settlement to be completed.

France is also proposing to host an international conference to launch the new peace track.

Window of opportunity

Supporters of a UN resolution are now hoping to win US backing or at least ensure Washington will not oppose the measure — which would be the first text adopted by the council on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 2009.

“There is a window of opportunity,” said a European diplomat. “There is a willingness from the Americans to consider options at the UN.”

Kerry led dogged efforts earlier this year to try to reach an Israeli Palestinian peace deal, but the bid collapsed amid bitter recriminations by both sides.

Relations between the US and Israel have been uneasy since, amid a series of spats and behind-the-scenes name-calling.

Kerry is due to meet Lavrov on Sunday, shortly after arriving in Rome. Talks with Netanyahu follow on Monday, after which the top US diplomat is expected to travel on within Europe although no stops have yet been announced.

Russia responded angrily on Saturday to news that US senators had passed a bill calling for fresh sanctions against Moscow and the supply of lethal military aid to Ukraine.

The eight-month conflict in Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists has left at least 4,634 dead and 10,243 wounded, while displacing more than 1.1 million people, according to the United Nations.

Deputy Russian foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said however the main focus of the Rome meeting — the 17th between the two diplomats this year — would be the Middle East.

The talks come as European parliaments in Britain, France, Spain, Ireland and Portugal have asked their governments to recognize Palestinian statehood — a move that would bypass negotiations.

And the campaign for snap Israeli elections in March is also complicating the regional political landscape.

“There are a lot of different folks pushing in different directions out there, and the question is can we all pull in the same direction,” Kerry said Friday, when asked about his meeting with Netanyahu.

“We’re trying to figure out a way to help defuse the tensions and reduce the potential for more conflict, and we’re exploring various possibilities to that end.”

Ireland recognizes Palestine as a state as EU vote looms

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A Palestinian protester holding her national flag faces Israeli soldiers during a demonstration on the highway between Jerusalem and Jericho on November 28, 2014, against the construction of Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley and against the plan to relocate Bedoiuns from the central West Bank area. AFP / Abbas Momani

A Palestinian protester holding her national flag faces Israeli soldiers during a demonstration on the highway between Jerusalem and Jericho on November 28, 2014, against the construction of Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley and against the plan to relocate Bedoiuns from the central West Bank area. AFP / Abbas Momani

by Al Akhbar

Irish lawmakers urged their government Wednesday to recognize Palestine as a state in a symbolic motion that sailed through parliament unopposed, the latest in a series of similar measures across Europe as the EU parliament holds a crucial vote on Palestine next week.

The Irish move came a day before the Danish parliament gears up to vote on Thursday to recognize Palestine as well.

The non-binding motion agreed by lawmakers in Dublin called on the government to “officially recognize the State of Palestine, on the basis of the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital, as established in UN resolutions.”

This would be “a further positive contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” it added.

The government is not bound to follow the motion but Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan said Ireland supported early recognition of a Palestinian state “in principle.”

“We have always supported a viable two-state solution and will continue to support that in any manner and by any means,” Flanagan told parliament.

Despite being proposed by the opposition Sinn Fein party, the motion had cross-party support, dispensing the need for a vote. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, who was refused entry to Gaza by Israel during a visit to the region last week, said the motion was about inspiring hope.

“We must stand with the Palestinian and Israeli citizens who want peace – who are taking risks for peace. The passing of this motion is an important contribution to this,” Adams said.

The motion also called on the Irish government to do everything it could internationally to secure “an inclusive and viable peace process.”

European politicians have become more active in pushing for a sovereign Palestine since the collapse of US-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in April, and ensuing conflict in Gaza, where more than 2,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and on the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and six civilians were killed this summer.

“It’s been suggested that recognition now might help jump-start a stalemate process. This was the judgement made by Sweden and indeed it is the spirit of this evening’s motion,” Flanagan said.

The chairperson of the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Martin O’Quigley, welcomed the move.

“It’s very important, but just as important is for the Irish government to make Israel accountable for what has happened and what is happening in Palestine,” he told AFP.

The Israeli embassy in Dublin said however the motion was premature.

“A vote in favor of this motion, therefore, is a vote for Ireland, a neutral country, to intervene in a foreign conflict in favour of one national movement at the expense of another,” the Embassy said in a statement.

“That is not how peace is brought about.”

Denmark to debate Palestine recognition

Meanwhile, the Danish parliament will debate a motion calling for the recognition of Palestine as a state on Thursday.

Danish MP Holger K. Nielsen, one of the main drivers behind the initiative in Denmark, told Ma’an news agency that the first reading will take place Thursday before a potential vote in the second reading, which could take place in early 2015.

The motion was introduced by the Red-Green Alliance, the Socialist People’s Party (SPP), and Greenland’s Inuit Ataqatigiit, three small left-wing parties. It calls on the government to recognize Palestine as a state within the 1967 borders

“I think there is strength now among European countries tired of Israel’s attitude to negotiations and it is therefore more important now to put pressure on Israel,” Nielsen, a member of the SPP, said.

Nielsen says it will be “difficult” to get a majority in the Danish parliament, which may even vote against it. But he thinks debates like these aim to raise public awareness and have notably changed national attitudes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Public opinion has changed (in Denmark) today compared to 10 years ago. Our aim is to change the situation so the Danish public understands the conflict.”

A former Danish adviser at the EU parliament told Ma’an that while the vote in Denmark won’t change the realities on the ground, it is a step in the right direction.

“The Danish vote is part of larger picture where a lot of Europeans are getting fed up with Israel’s rejectionism and continued settlement building. Parliaments in a lot of EU countries are reacting to this and putting Palestinian statehood to a vote out of concern for the two-state solution.”

According to PA estimations, around 135 countries have so far recognized the State of Palestine, although the number is disputed and several recognitions by what are now European Union member states date back to the Soviet era.

Ireland’s parliament is the fourth European assembly to call for the recognition of Palestinian statehood since October.

Sweden, who initiated the vote, has gone even further, officially recognizing Palestine as a state in a move that prompted Israel to recall its ambassador.

A week after Sweden’s decision, MPs in Britain voted 274 to 12 for a non-binding motion to “recognize the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel as a contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution.”

On November 18, Spanish MPs backed a motion to recognize Palestine as a state following a final-status agreement, while on December 2, French MPs voted 339 to 151 in favor of a motion that invites Paris to recognize the state of Palestine “as an instrument to gain a definitive resolution of the conflict.”

Spain notably changed its wording on the day of the motion following an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue — from recognition as a way to encourage a “negotiated settlement” to recognition following an agreement.

Intense lobbying around EU vote

The Danish debate comes a week before the EU parliament is due to vote on recognizing Palestine as a state on December 17, a motion postponed on November4 27 following reportedly intense pressure by Israeli diplomats.

Spain’s significant rewording of its motion reflects the core split within the EU parliament: using unconditional recognition as a means to address the imbalance between both sides in the peace process, or recognition as a condition of the outcome of talks.

A staffer in the European parliament told Ma’an that the vote was extremely tight at the moment, with signs that there could be no majority for any text at all, a potentially damaging blow for the EU’s role as a serious global actor.

The PA has also notably been absent from lobbying parliament members on the vote, the staffer said, with Israeli civil society actors lobbying passionately in favor of recognition and Israeli diplomats and other actors lobbying intensely against parliamentarians recognizing Palestine.

Whatever the outcome of the vote next week, debate in the EU parliament has been extensive, the staffer added.

EU recognition of Palestine would do little to change the realities of occupation, the former Danish adviser told Ma’an, but it could be taken as a sign of future EU action if Israel continues to maintain the status quo.

New EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who took office in early November, has been extremely vocal on Palestine and made it a point of calling for a Palestinian state during a visit to Gaza, the first visit in her new position.

Mogherini’s statements together with real measures such as getting tougher on settlements, denying violent settlers access to the EU, and reviewing the extensive trade agreements with Israel could signal meaningful change if the EU recognition vote falls flat, the former adviser added.

Holger Nielsen, the Danish MP, agrees that the EU must use economic means and be stricter on trade policy to really influence the Israeli government’s position.

“It’s difficult, but you have to continue the discussion. Change is coming all the time. Maybe not tomorrow, but I’m sure the only way you can make things change is to maintain this kind of pressure.”

The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-famous “Balfour Declaration,” called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community.

In November 1988, Palestinian leaders led by Yasser Arafat declared the existence of a state of Palestine inside the 1967 borders and the state’s belief “in the settlement of international and regional disputes by peaceful means in accordance with the charter and resolutions of the United Nations.”

Heralded as a “historic compromise,” the move implied that Palestinians would agree to accept only 22 percent of historic Palestine, in exchange for peace with Israel. It is now believed that only 17 percent of historic Palestine is under Palestinian control following the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) this year set November 2016 as the deadline for ending the Israeli withdrawal from the territories occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967 and establishing a two-state solution.

It is worth noting that numerous pro-Palestine activists support a one-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians would be treated equally, arguing that the creation of a Palestinian state beside Israel would not be sustainable. They also believe that the two-state solution, which is the only option considered by international actors, won’t solve existing discrimination, nor erase economic and military tensions.

(AFP, Ma’an, Al-Akhbar)

Belgium may unilaterally recognize Palestine – report

by

Photo: Mohammed Salem/Reuters

Photo: Mohammed Salem/Reuters

by RT

Four political parties that form Belgium’s government have reportedly agreed to recognize the Palestinian state, despite diplomatic pressure from Israel and its allies. The recognition will happen “at a moment deemed appropriate.”

Belgium could become the second European Union member to officially recognize the Palestinian state, reported Le Soir, French language daily Belgian newspaper.

Sweden was the first country to recognize the occupied state of Palestine this year.

Belgium’s coalition government allegedly drafted a motion regarding recognition of the Palestinian state earlier this week. The document that will be submitted to nation’s parliament for implementation bears no set date of recognition, though.

In late November Prime Minister Charles Michel favored Palestine recognition. “But the question is when is the right moment,” he added.

There should be a common position elaborated within the EU regarding the Palestinian state recognition, Michel stressed. Yet there is at least one European state – Germany – that has spoken against recognition of Palestine.

“From our point of view, a unilateral recognition of the Palestinian state would not move us forward on the way to a two-state solution,” Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel said in November after meeting with Michel.

In October the British parliament voted in favor of a symbolic move to recognize Palestine as an official state, answering impassioned pleas by pro-Palestinian ministers and activists.

Irish lawmakers joined the initiative in November.

Spanish MPs have watered down outright calls for a Palestinian state after the ruling Socialist party passed a non-binding symbolic motion, though initial version urged the Madrid government to recognize Palestine.

The French parliament passed a symbolic motion on Palestine recognition on Tuesday, while the senate will vote on a similar non-binding motion on December 11. At the same time Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius stressed that the government would only recognize Palestinian statehood after Palestine and Israel come to a solution in peace talks.

Israeli authorities have been warning other nations to withstand from recognizing Palestinian statehood in any way.

“Recognition of a Palestinian state by France would be a grave mistake,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters in Jerusalem ahead of the French vote.

Simultaneously with the symbolic recognitions of the Palestinian state, Netanyahu’s cabinet voted in favor of anchoring in law the status of Israel as “the national homeland of the Jewish people,” which critics fear would discriminate the Arab population.

French MPs recognize Palestine as a state in non-binding vote

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A Palestinian man holds a poster as he calls for France to vote for the recognition of a Palestinian State outside a French and German language training center in the West Bank city of Ramallah on December 2, 2014. AFP / Abbas Momani

A Palestinian man holds a poster as he calls for France to vote for the recognition of a Palestinian State outside a French and German language training center in the West Bank city of Ramallah on December 2, 2014. AFP / Abbas Momani

by Al Akhbar

French lawmakers voted on Tuesday in favor of recognizing Palestine as a state, a symbolic move that will not immediately affect France’s diplomatic stance but demonstrates growing European impatience with a stalled peace process.

The motion, which echoes similar votes in Britain, Spain and Ireland, received the backing of 339 lawmakers with 151 voting against.

While most developing countries recognize Palestine as a state, many Western European countries do not due to their ties with Israel and its main ally, the US.

But European countries have grown frustrated with Israel, which since the collapse of the latest US-sponsored talks in April has pressed on with building illegal settlements in annexed East Jerusalem and the West Bank, territory that is being considered for a Palestinian state under a two-state solution.

The seven-week Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip over the summer also elicited serious criticisms regarding the Zionist state’s use of force. More than 2,160 Palestinians were killed in the conflict, at least 70 percent of them civilians.

Palestinian leaders say negotiations have failed and they have no choice but to pursue independence unilaterally.

In October, Sweden became the biggest Western European country to recognize Palestine, and parliaments in Spain, Britain and Ireland have since held votes in which they backed non-binding resolutions in favor of recognition.

In an interview in Les Echos daily on Tuesday, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven defended the move.

“What is working so well in the current plan?” Lofven asked. “It’s time to do something different. We wanted to make the balance less uneven between the two parties.”

Israel has strongly opposed all such moves and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the French vote a “grave mistake.”

The motion, proposed by the ruling Socialists and backed by left-wing parties and some conservatives, asked the government to “use the recognition of a Palestinian state with the aim of resolving the conflict definitively.”

Speaking to parliament ahead of the vote, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the government would not be bound by the vote. However, he said the status quo was unacceptable and France would recognize an independent Palestine without a negotiated settlement if a final diplomatic push failed.

He backed a two-year timeframe to relaunch and conclude negotiations. Paris is working with Britain and Germany on a text that could be accelerated if a separate resolution drafted by Palestinians is put forward.

“If this final effort to reach a negotiated solution fails, then France will have to do what it takes by recognizing without delay the Palestinian state,” Fabius said.

The vote in Paris has raised domestic political pressure on the French government to be more active on the issue. A recent poll showed more than 60 percent of French people supported a Palestinian state.

France has the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in Europe and flare-ups in the Middle East aggravate tensions between the two communities.

Right-wing lawmakers have criticised the Socialist majority for backing Palestine recognition to win back support from Muslim voters after President Francois Hollande’s apparent support for Israel’s intervention in Gaza.

The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-famous “Balfour Declaration,” called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community.

In November 1988, Palestinian leaders led by Yasser Arafat declared the existence of a state of Palestine inside the 1967 borders and the state’s belief “in the settlement of international and regional disputes by peaceful means in accordance with the charter and resolutions of the United Nations.”

Heralded as a “historic compromise,” the move implied that Palestinians would agree to accept only 22 percent of historic Palestine, in exchange for peace with Israel. It is now believed that only 17 percent of historic Palestine is under Palestinian control following the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) this year set November 2016 as the deadline for ending the Israeli withdrawal from the territories occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967 and establishing a two-state solution.

According to PA estimations, 134 countries have so far recognized the State of Palestine, although the number is disputed and several recognitions by what are now European Union member states date back to the Soviet era.

It is worth noting that numerous pro-Palestine activists support a one-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians would be treated equally, arguing that the creation of a Palestinian state beside Israel would not be sustainable. They also believe that the two-state solution, which is the only option considered by international actors, won’t solve existing discrimination, nor erase economic and military tensions.

(Reuters, Al-Akhbar)

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