EU FOREIGN ministers have called for a swift resumption of Middle East peace talks, arguing that a way must be found for Jerusalem to become the future capital of both a Palestinian state and Israel.
Although they dropped a Swedish proposal to refer to East Jerusalem as the future capital of a Palestinian state, the statement is the ministers’ first explicit declaration that the city should be the capital of both states.
As such it marks an effort to step up pressure on Israel following its temporary freeze on the construction of new settlements in the West Bank, a move the ministers described as a partial “first step” in the right direction.
Palestinians have rejected the moratorium as falling short of the total halt they sought as a precondition for restarting peace talks.
“We are seriously concerned about the lack of progress in the Middle East peace process and we have thus decided to take conclusions on the Middle East that gives a very clear and firm line,” said Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt, chair of the meeting due to his country’s six-month rotating presidency of the EU.
Israel’s foreign ministry, which had sought a deletion or watering down of the East Jerusalem reference, said the EU ignored “the Palestinian refusal to return to the negotiating table”, which, it said, was the primary obstacle to a resolution of the conflict.
“Given the Israel government’s efforts to renew the negotiations, Israel regrets that the EU has chosen to adopt a text that, even if it contains nothing new, does not contribute to the renewal of negotiations,” the foreign ministry said.
The statement, however, was welcomed by Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, who said it was a victory for international legitimacy and law. He said it marked an important stage on the road to Palestinians establishing an independent state with its capital in East Jerusalem.
After their discussions on the Middle East, the EU ministers said Israel should immediately end all settlement activities in East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank and dismantle all outposts erected since March 2001.
“If there is to be genuine peace, a way must be found through negotiations to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states,” they said.
“The European Union calls for the urgent resumption of negotiations that will lead, within an agreed timeframe, to a two-state solution with the state of Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous and viable state of Palestine living side by side in peace and security.”
Although a late draft of the statement said a Palestinian state would comprise “the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza”, this reference was dropped from the final text. The ministers said: “Settlements, the separation barrier where built on occupied land, demolition of homes and evictions are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible.”
Welcoming Israel’s easing of restrictions of movement in the West Bank, they called for further improvements and said the Palestinians should build on efforts to improve law and order.
The EU ministers called on Israel to cease all discriminatory treatment of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and expressed grave concern about the situation in Gaza, arguing that extremists gained from the current situation.
Minister of State for Europe Dick Roche said the statement was not in any sense hostile to Israel.
“Sometimes it’s necessary for your friends to speak harshly of what you’re doing,” he said.
Catherine Ashton, the newly installed EU foreign policy chief, did not answer a reporter’s question on whether she would advise the EU to recognise a unilaterally declared Palestinian state.
She said she understood the significance of ensuring the EU played its part in the Middle East “for the Palestinian people, for the Israeli people, for the other states who have a deep interest in what happens there”.
