Diplomacy

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EU Vote Rejects Unilateral Palestinian Moves, Stresses Negotiations

by TheTower.org Staff |

The parliament of the European Union voted today to reject the tactic of unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood, instead declaring that recognition should come as a result of negotiations. Reuters reports:

Following a deal among the main parties, the motion carried by 498 votes to 88 stated: “(The European Parliament) supports in principle recognition of Palestinian statehood and the two-state solution, and believes these should go hand in hand with the development of peace talks, which should be advanced.” …

“With this vote, the European Parliament has clearly rejected an unconditional recognition separate from the peace negotiations,” said Elmar Brok, a German conservative who chairs the parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

Reuters reported that many in the EU are seeking to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which ended in April after Fatah, the main Palestinian political faction, entered into a unity government agreement with Hamas, the terrorist organization that governs Gaza and is dedicated to Israel’s destruction. The unity agreement explicitly violated the terms laid out by the world powers known as the Quartet (consisting of the UN, EU, U.S. and Russia), demanding “that all members of a future Palestinian government must be committed to nonviolence, recognition of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the Roadmap.”

Despite the Palestinians’ commitment in 1993 to renounce terror and agreeing that “all outstanding issues relating to permanent status will be resolved through negotiations,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has allied with Hamas and pursued a strategy of shunning negotiations in favor of internationalizing the conflict in order to have an agreement imposed on Israel. Abbas articulated this strategy in a 2011 op-ed in The New York Times, in which he wrote that he planned “to pursue claims against Israel at the United Nations, human rights treaty bodies and the International Court of Justice.”

Bilateral negotiations have long been considered the key to a stable peace in the Middle East. Abbas’ efforts to bypass negotiations, including his reported effort to bring a vote on recognition to the United Nations Security Council in the near future, undermine that fundamental requirement for a stable peace in the region.

[Photo: Eva Van Wassenhove / Flickr ]

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