EU parliament to vote on Palestine statehood

BRUSSELS - The European Parliament will next Thursday (27 November) add its voice to the debate on whether EU states should recognise Palestine.

The motion was initiated at the 11th hour by the left-wing Gue i and S&D i groups in the EU assembly.

It is too early to say what the final text of the resolution will propose.

The Gue group’s draft text “urges all EU member states … to recognise the State of Palestine on the basis of the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as the capital”.

The Greens i are likely to follow Gue. But the liberal Alde group’s draft only calls for EU countries “to find a common EU position on this regard”.

The centre-right EPP i and centre-left S&D factions - the two biggest ones - told EUobserver their texts are not yet ready.

Whatever it ends up saying, the MEPs’ motion will not be binding on EU countries.

But it comes amid a wave of pro-recognition sentiment in Europe.

Last month, Sweden became the first sitting EU state to formally recognise Palestine.

British, Irish, and Spanish MPs have urged their governments to follow suit.

French MPs will debate a similar motion next Friday, with a vote later the same day or the following Tuesday (2 December).

The French draft resolution, tabled by the ruling Socialist party, invites “the French government to recognise the Palestinian state with a view to obtaining a definitive solution" to the conflict.

Meanwhile, a group of some 600 Israeli VIPs, artists, and professionals sent a petition to MEPs on Friday urging them to support recognition.

Amid recent violence in Jerusalem, they said the current “stalemate” will “lead to further confrontations”.

The signatories include former Israeli ambassadors, military chiefs, and MPs.

One of them, Michael Ben-Yair, Israel’s former attorney general, added in an op-ed for EUobserver that Israel's occupation of Palestine "is not only morally unjustifiable, it also undermines Israel’s security and endangers its existence”.

But Israeli authorities say they are not occupying anything because Gaza and the West Bank are “terra nullius” or “no man’s land”.

They also say “unilateral” actions by EU countries harm prospects of a negotiated solution by hardening Palestinian negotiators.

Who cares what the EU thinks?

One senior EU diplomat told this website the new pressure from EU capitals comes amid “frustration” in Europe that Israel keeps ignoring it on settlement expansion in sensitive areas.

EU states have also brainstormed sanctions-type moves, such as recalling ambassadors.

But the EU contact said European pressure is unlikely to have much effect.

The five largest EU countries - Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain - on Thursday urged Israel not to demolish the family homes of Palestinians involved in recent attacks in Jerusalem. But Israel is doing it anyway.

“We’re waiting to see if the Americans decide to re-engage in peace talks”, the EU source said.

He noted that most former US presidents, such as Bill Clinton, waited until the last year of their second term before trying to get a Middle East breakthrough.

“That means we might be waiting until late 2015 or early 2016 [for US leader Barack Obama i]. The big question is what do we do if they don’t re-engage? Do we just continue to keep paying the bill?”, he added, referring to EU funding for Palestine and to the cost of the Arab-Israeli conflict for EU security.

The last round of US-mediated Israel-Palestine talks broke off in April. The US is Israel's main financial and security sponsor.