…Jerusalem must be the joint capital of Israel and Palestinian, and more.
Where no US president including Obama has dared to tread, today, in a follow up to an earlier draft by Sweden which holds the current EU presidency, EU ministers representing 27 European nations stepped up and declared support for a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Before AIPAC in 2008, Obama made the awful decision to support Jerusalem as the “undivided” capital of Israel, disenfranchising the Palestinians of their own capital. At least now he knows that the EU will not support and go along with these unilateral pro-Netanyahu moves, which are illegal by international law. And I would suspect that Russia and China will follow suit.
The EU decision is a rebuke of Obama and notice that he cannot predetermine a settlement that will have the support of most of the European community.
The body of EU ministers even went further by affirming the 1967 border as the border between Israel and Palestine, thus contradicting the earlier gesture of George W Bush to gave away, without authority, parts of the West Bank to Israel which was humbly accepted by Israeli PM at the time, Ariel Sharon.
The story from Reuters:
European Union foreign ministers on Tuesday called for negotiations over the status of Jerusalem, saying a way should be found to make it the capital of two nations, Israel and a future Palestinian state.
Sweden, which currently holds the European Union presidency, presented a draft document last week supporting the division of Jerusalem and the recognition of East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. “If there is to be a genuine peace, a way must be found through negotiations to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states,” EU foreign ministers agreed in a statement released on Tuesday, diplomats said.
The status of Jerusalem – a city holy to three religions – is a sensitive issue for Israel, which considers the city to be its indivisible capital. Palestinians want the eastern part of Jerusalem to serve as the capital of a Palestinian state.
(snip)
The document also called for the establishment of a Palestinian state comprising the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. “If there is to be [peace] a way has to be found to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the capital of two states,” it said. The competing claims to East Jerusalem remain the most intractable issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Last week, Israel sternly warned the EU against adopting new language that endorses East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.
(Link to the full article above)
