2023-11-27 14:59:19
There is growing consensus on the need for the solution to the conflict in the Middle East to go through the recognition of the two states – Israel, which already exists, and Palestine – at the same time that pressure is growing for the four-day truce. , which concludes this Monday, be extended. And the high representative of the EU, Josep Borrell, has opened another flank of pressure on Israel by harshly criticizing the intention of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government to expand funds for illegal settlements. “The settlements constitute a serious violation of international humanitarian law and are the greatest burden on Israel’s security,” said the head of European diplomacy in his speech to the 42 states that make up the Mediterranean Union, which has been formed. meeting this Monday in Barcelona, with the only absence of Israel.
The message was later repeated on the social network “incompatible with the illegal extension of settlements in the West Bank.” Borrell has also condemned the “violence of extremist settlers”, which he has explained, “many times with the protection of the Israeli police and army”.
I’m appalled to learn that in the middle of a war, the Israeli gov is poised to commit new funds to build more illegal settlements.
This is not self-defence and will not make Israel safer. The settlements are grave IHL breach, and they are Israel’s greatest security liability.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) November 27, 2023
Criticism has also come from the press room of the European Commission in Brussels. “The settlements are a major obstacle to achieving a viable Palestinian State,” said the foreign spokesman, Peter Stano, before recalling that it is an old position of the EU.
But the recognition of the State of Palestine has gained strength precisely with the escalation of the conflict following the Hamas attacks on October 7, which has led to a response from Israel that has now left more than 15,000 dead, including some 6,000 children. And that is the ultimate goal that the EU, the Arab countries and other allies, such as the United States, aspire to reach, whose president, Joe Biden, reiterated this weekend. “A Palestinian State in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem. It is the best and only guarantee of long-term security for Israel. There will be no peace and security for Israel without a Palestinian State,” Borrell stated.
“What is happening today in Palestine and, in particular, in Gaza is a moral and political bankruptcy of the international community, which for thirty years has been repeating that the solution was to build two states but doing little or nothing to make it a reality. Today we are aware that the loss of civilian lives will continue generation after generation and funeral after funeral if we cannot reach a political agreement that allows what we have so often preached to become a reality,” said Borrell, who outlined a series of “steps concrete” to achieve it.
The first involves “prolonging the truce in a way that allows the release of more hostages and evolves towards a permanent ceasefire associated with the beginning of a political process.” That, the head of European diplomacy has said, has a “very majority consensus.” From there, he has pointed out the need to end the Israeli occupation and prevent Gaza from ending up under the control of that country and, therefore, displacement.
Borrell has stated that an “unsustainable humanitarian crisis” is occurring and that is why diplomatic efforts are now focused on containing the attacks. “It doesn’t make much sense to give someone dinner if he is going to die the next day under bombs. Humanitarian aid serves to alleviate damage; “But what must be achieved is that a pause in the bombings allows us to avoid more deaths,” he explained before ruling: “Humanitarian aid is essential, but it is not enough.”
“This war in Gaza is illegal, illicit, inhuman, devastating,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of Jordan, Ayman Safadi, who has sent a message to the 27, who maintain that “Israel has the right to defend itself within the international law”: “This brutality and violation of international legality cannot be justified.” “The silence must end,” he added before appealing to the need to “work to guarantee that the truce becomes a permanent ceasefire.”
Brussels does not enter into Israel’s diplomatic crisis with Spain and Belgium
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, spoke along the same lines, and after recalling the condemnation of the Hamas attacks against a “founding partner” of the Union for the Mediterranean, he recalled that “the victims have all the solidarity of Spain”. “Spain has been clear and will continue to be clear calling for a humanitarian ceasefire and asking Israel to respect international humanitarian law. The death of thousands of innocent Palestinians is not acceptable,” he said, reiterating the words of Pedro Sánchez before Benjamin Netanyahu, which have led to a diplomatic crisis between the two countries (and Belgium, whose prime minister, Alexander de Croo, spoke in the same terms).
In Brussels they avoid entering into that conflict. “The latest issues between Israel, Spain and Belgium are purely bilateral matters and it is not our place to comment on them,” said the spokesperson, who was, however, confident that they would not interfere with the EU’s mediation work in the conflict. . “If we want things to move towards peace and stability, there is a role for the EU and one of the fundamental principles is that the solution will need more participation from Arab countries, but also from the EU. This is what we are determined to do and we hope that any type of bilateral issues, misunderstandings, do not get in the way of achieving these objectives,” Stano added.
The EU’s commitment also involves ensuring that the future of the Gaza Strip is in the hands of the “revitalized” Palestinian Authority. “I don’t see another actor that is more politically legitimized than any one can imagine to take control of Gaza and prevent people from being radicalized and having the right to live as human beings,” said Borrell, who admitted that it is “perfectable.” , improvable and there must be elections as soon as possible and Israel must cooperate so that these elections take place because when they were called it did not allow them to be held in East Jerusalem.
And can the Palestinian Authority really take it on? “We do not need to return to Gaza, we have never stopped being in Gaza. “We have been responding to the needs of the population,” answered the Palestinian Foreign Minister, Riyad Al Maliki, in a press conference with Albares within the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean in which he explained that since “Hamas carried out a coup d’état 17 years ago” the Palestinian Authority has been in charge of the “administrative part” of the Gaza Strip. “Until now we have kept 60,000 public employees paid by us in Gaza working and offering services,” such as schools, education, infrastructure or administrative matters such as “getting passports or birth certificates,” he explained in Spanish.
#violation #international #law