Brussels, 23/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 23 June, President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas said he thought that “the beginning of the solution to the problem of terrorism started in Palestine”.
“To be able to beat terrorism, we must put an end to Israel's occupation with the creation of a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital (…) Otherwise, terrorism will not be beaten. It will continue to give weapons and pretexts to terrorists, but once occupation has ceased, these pretexts will disappear”, Abbas said during an address to the European Parliament in Brussels.
He thus underlined the need to put an end to the Israeli occupation, and spoke out against the settlements, the demolitions, the wall of separation, “the arbitrary actions” and “the hate-filled and odious racism”. He called for European aid to “to put an end to the longest occupation in modern history”, “an occupation unprecedented in the 20th century, which has continued into the 21st century, in the sight and knowledge of the international community”. “Why is international law not applied in Israel's case?” When one state attacks another, the world rises as a single man to punish, except in the case of Israel. It can attack us in total impunity”, Abbas said, asking why the United Nations resolutions went unheeded.
Abbas said he thought the European institutions should continue their efforts on the political and diplomatic level “to reach a fair solution” in the region. He also asked Europeans to recognise the State of Palestine because “when you believe in the constitution of two states, you would need to recognise both states and not just one of them”.
Abbas also spoke out against the status quo in the negotiations. “We are not moving forward. We are turning around the negotiations in circles. We are negotiating to negotiate, without any result. This is what Israel is imposing in order to win time so as to change the reality on the ground, which distances the possibility of a two-state solution”, he said, holding out a hand to the Israelis “to achieve peace” in a conflict that he described as just political and not religious. In contrast to Israel's President Reuven Rivlin the previous day (see EUROPE 11578), Abbas hailed the French initiative, “this noble and worthy effort”. “If the international conference takes place, clear deadlines would have to be laid down for the negotiations. The application of the agreements must be subjected to deadlines. It would be good to create a monitoring mechanism”, he said. Abbas said he wanted a mechanism like the one created for the Iranian nuclear programme (5+1) to be used to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also called for the stimulation of the tripartite Israel-Palestine-USA committee. This stimulation would come through the entry of the EU as the fourth member. The USA and EU would have an arbitrator's role.
During his visit to Brussels on Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 June, Abbas met European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and European Council President Donald Tusk. The Europeans reiterated their support for the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)