Tag: Palestine

Palestinians moved a step closer to full membership of UNESCO, the UN cultural agency yesterday (5 October) when its board decided to let 193 member countries vote on admission this month.

The European Union hopes to persuade Palestinian leaders to drop plans for full United Nations membership this month in return for a nuanced upgrading of their UN observer status, EU diplomats said yesterday (15 September).

The European Union has still not decided on a united position on a Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations which the United States has said it will veto, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said yesterday (12 September).

Although the world's attention is fixed on the Arab Spring, human rights abuses continue in the Palestinian territories and the EU should consciously use its aid policy to push for an end to the blockade of Gaza and a moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank, argues Chris Bain of CIDSE.

The leaked 'Palestine Papers' on concessions offered to Israel show the failure of the US as principal mediator and give the EU an opportunity to step up its role in peace talks, argues Spyros Danellis MEP, a member of the European Parliament's Palestine delegation, in an opinion piece sent exclusively to EurActiv.

European Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht apologised on 3 September for comments he made about Jews in a recent interview. The European Commission distanced itself from the offensive statements, but that did not stop commentators and Jewish organisations from talking of a "new wave" of anti-Semitism and racism across Europe.

The news that Israeli-Palestinian talks are to resume should not lead to over-expectations as to their outcome, warns Shlomo Avineri, director-general of Israel's Foreign Ministry under Yitzhak Rabin's first cabinet and professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Bulgaria is ready to host direct talks between Israel and Palestine, diplomatic sources told EurActiv. The development follows a visit to the EU newcomer by the president of the Jewish state and comes after the Palestinian president had signalled his desire for such a breakthrough.

Tensions between Turkey and Israel escalated yesterday (5 July), as Ankara warned it would cut ties with the Jewish state unless it apologises for a deadly attack on a humanitarian flotilla on its way to Gaza or accepts an international inquiry into the incident. EurActiv Turkey contributed to this report.

Turkey's minister of European affairs and chief EU negotiator, Egemen Bagiş, made a bold appeal for the embargo on Gaza to be lifted on a visit to Brussels yesterday (9 June). At the same time in Washington, US President Barack Obama described the current situation there as "unsustainable" and called for "a new approach".

Israel has downgraded the level of meetings with a group of fifteen visiting MEPs as a result of their plan to hold talks tomorrow (27 May) in the Gaza strip, EurActiv has learned. Israel refuses to permit foreign officials to enter Gaza, explaining that such moves serve to legitimise Hamas.

For Israelis EU membership is a dream: a dream that may come true one day, Gadi Baltiansky of 'H.L. Education for Peace Ltd.', director-general of the Geneva Initiative for Israel, told EurActiv Slovakia in an interview.

Miroslav Lajčák, Slovakia's minister of foreign affairs, met Israeli and Palestinian leaders of the Geneva Initiative, a think-tank, ahead of a tour of the region. EurActiv Slovakia reports.

The European Union on 8 December urged Israel to share Jerusalem with the Palestinians as part of a Middle East peace agreement and make the holy city the capital of two states.

A huge enthusiastic crowd hailed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's arrival at Istanbul airport early this morning (30 January), after he cut short a debate with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum, saying he would never return to Davos.

"The EU has to restructure its failed strategy [in Gaza] and seek to bring the new US administration to a similar re-appraisal and policy change," argue Michael Emerson and Richard Youngs, associate senior research fellows at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), and Natalie Tocci, senior research fellow at the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome, in a January CEPS report.

As was the case during last summer's Georgia crisis, the EU has once again responded to the first international challenges of 2009 by sending observers, this time to monitor the borders between Gaza and Egypt, and Russia and Ukraine to supervise the supply of gas intended for Europe.

The UN, US, EU and Russia have laid down the details of an emergency plan agreed earlier in May that will see direct payments bypassing the Palestinian government to cover basic healthcare needs.

With no assurances from the future Hamas government regarding its stance on terrorism, the EU has decided to offer 120 million euros in assistance to the Palestinian Authority.

In response to Israel's recent withdrawal from Gaza, the Commission is drafting a comprehensive medium-term strategy to create a politically and economically viable Palestinian state.

The aim of this paper, written by Nathalie Tocci and published by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), is to compare the manner in which the Union’s bilateral relations have affected two key conflict areas in its neighbourhood: the dispute between the Turkish state and the Kurds, and that between Israelis and Palestinians. The two conflicts differ significantly, as do the Union’s relations with the parties.

EU aid to Palestinians will amount to around 250 million euros this year, the Commission has announced. The aid comes amid allegations that previous sums were used to fund terrorist activities.

France and Belgium have been criticised by Israel for their support of the 'Geneva peace agreement'. Israel flatly rejects the Geneva initiative.

The international quartet of the US, the EU, Russia and the UN have sharply criticised Israel over continued violence in the West Bank.