With the support of organisations from the EU, Israel, Palestine and the diaspora , we call upon Europe to recognize the urgency and lead a diplomatic initiative that aims to achieve a just and sustainable resolution of this long-standing conflict.
If we support International Law and the principles of the United Nations Charter, if we assume our obligations written in the European Convention on Human Rights and if we wish to be coherent with our democratic values, all of us, states and citizens, are obliged and responsible to stand up against the annexation of the Palestinian territories, calling on the Israeli government to respect international law and existing United Nations resolutions.
Palestinian people have the same right of self-determination as the Israeli people. Pompeo visited a winery near the settlement of Psagot on Thursday, the first such visit by a top US diplomat.
Until now, US policy has required products made in the West Bank to be labeled as such. The concluding remark of the statement appeared to take a direct shot at the European Union, which has led a policy obliging all 28 member states to label exports produced in Israeli towns beyond the Green Line as having been made in the settlements. The European Parliament, too, adopted a resolution in that spirit.
Nonetheless, only one European state — Sweden — officially announced de facto recognition, in October , upgrading the status of the Palestinian representative office to that of an embassy and labeling the hosting of Abbas as a head-of-state visit.
However, Sweden did not open an embassy in Ramallah, and Swedish representation remained at the level of a consulate in East Jerusalem. In , France launched a peace initiative and announced that it would recognize a Palestinian state should the plan fail.
French officials subsequently withdrew that promise, and when the initiative failed France did not recognize Palestine. They also contend that given the impasse in the peace process, the growing irrelevance of the two-state vision, and concern over escalation into violence, recognition would preserve the two-state principle, bolster Palestinian moderates, and offer the Palestinian public a political horizon. In conclusion, while recognition was discussed in the past as part of a future Israeli-Palestinian agreement, these days several European states are considering it as a response to annexation.
A decision on recognition would not require consensus, and each EU member could decide for itself. Although recognition would be an expression of protest against annexation, it would not constitute a European sanction against Israel, and would be perceived instead as a balancing measure designed to preserve the feasibility of the two-state vision, and to bolster the PA against the threat of collapse and escalation.
The Declaration was recognized by several countries shortly after. In and , the Oslo Accords were signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization to resolve the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including establishing the Palestinian National Authority as a self-governing interim administration in areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Today, Palestinians continue to fight for an official state that is formally recognized by all countries.
Palestine occupies key areas of land, including the Gaza Strip and West Bank; however, many Israelis continue to settle in these locations.
Palestinian leaders of Hamas presented a document in that proposed a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and defined borders, but it refused to recognize Israel as a state and was rejected by the Israeli government.
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