Europeans face Israel's refusal to consider a two-state solution
The foreign ministers of the European Union received in Brussels on Monday the secretary general of the Arab League as well as the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and especially those of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
On the menu of their separate discussions, the security and humanitarian emergency but also the very hypothetical peace process.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks to the media in Brussels, Monday, January 22, 2024. AP - Virginia Mayo
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After these meetings, the head of European diplomacy stressed that a number of ministers asked their Israeli counterpart Israel Katz for emergency measures to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians in
Gaza
, reports our office in Brussels.
For Josep Borrell, we do indeed need more humanitarian aid convoys but we also need to initiate a longer-term process and rebuild a perspective of peace, thirty years after the Oslo Accords.
“
Emergency is the priority, but this should not prevent us from working for the long term, starting now to prepare for a peace conference, in order to address the conflict and its root causes and seek a stable solution ,
he stressed.
Otherwise, we will enter a new cycle of violence, from burial to burial, from generation to generation.
This is the work that we began with a first draft of a peace plan.
This plan must provide solid security guarantees for
Israel
and the future State of Palestine.
»
Israel deaf to calls
But the Europeans have not convinced their Israeli counterpart, even if they affirm that a process towards a two-state solution can only be achieved when Hamas has been ruled out.
They are counting on countries in the region to help them offer Israel and Palestine security guarantees, financial and diplomatic support that could encourage them to begin talks.
For his part, Israel Katz refused to consider this solution, indicating that he was in Brussels to ensure the support of Europeans in the war led by his country in order to “
dismantle
” Hamas and obtain the release of the hostages. that the Palestinian Islamist movement still holds.
He also showed two videos to European ministers: one on a project for an artificial island to serve as a port in Gaza and another concerning a railway line to connect Israel to India.
“
The minister could have made better use of his time and been concerned about the security of his country and the high number of deaths in Gaza
,” Josep Borrell reacted to the press, not hiding his annoyance.
“
What other solutions are they thinking of?
“, he asked.
“
Make all the Palestinians leave?
Kill them ?
", he added.
The Israelis “
are sowing the seeds of hatred for generations to come
,” said Josep Borrell, for whom Israel cannot build peace
“only
” through war.
(
And with
AFP)
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