The European Union is the Palestinians’ biggest financial backer and – despite reservations about the Ramallah-based authorities – believes they have a key role to play in post-war Gaza.
BRUSSELS (AFP) – European supporters showed support for the Palestinian Authority and the push for a two-state solution on Monday, as the US-Israel war with Iran has drawn attention from Gaza.
Efforts to strengthen the Palestinian Authority come after US President Donald Trump has sidelined it in his plans for Gaza and the “Peace Board” initiative.
“We meet in the middle of a storm. But we cannot abandon the compass,” Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said at the start of a meeting of the “Global Alliance for the Two-State Solution”. “
We must stay the course because the Israeli-Palestinian issue is affecting the Middle East as a whole and also the rest of the world,” she said.
The European Union is the Palestinians’ biggest financial backer and – despite having reservations about the Ramallah-based authorities – believes they have a key role to play in post-war Gaza.
“We can and must do more to guarantee respect for human rights and accountability, to protect the Palestinian people and to put the two-state solution back on the table,” said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
Attending the Brussels conference, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa said this was happening “at a moment defined by both great tragedy and a narrow but real opportunity to move from war to a just and lasting peace.”
Mustafa insisted that post-war Gaza remained an “integral part of the state of Palestine” and that governance must ultimately be handed over to the Palestinian Authority.
The United States in October reached a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
In January, Washington announced that the ceasefire had moved into the second phase of the Trump-brokered peace plan.
This phase envisages the disarmament of Hamas and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The plan also foresees that the day-to-day governance of Gaza will eventually be handed over to a technocratic committee of Palestinians.
The show of support for the Palestinians comes as the position among some European states has also hardened towards Israel over its war in Lebanon and the worsening situation in the occupied West Bank.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said his country would renew its demand that the EU suspend cooperation with Israel at a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers on Tuesday.
Diplomats said, however, that the move looked unlikely to come through as other EU states were unwilling to risk influencing a ceasefire deal in Lebanon announced last week.
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From Agence France-Presse
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