The European Union’s foreign ministers on Tuesday softened their call for a division of Jerusalem between Israel and the Palestinians, saying that the city should be shared but that the two sides should negotiate the details.
The statement, issued in Brussels, marks a diplomatic victory for Israel in a contest with the Palestinians for international support.
In the absence of direct, U.S.-mediated peace talks, Palestinian officials have focused on ways to bring their case before the United Nations and the European Union, prompting intense lobbying over the language used in different texts and over the terms of European and other involvement in the region.
The 27 E.U. foreign ministers met this week amid heightened international concern over Jerusalem’s future.
Last month, a group of E.U. envoys to the Palestinian territories issued a starkly critical report about what they deemed Israeli efforts to isolate the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem from the West Bank, increase the Jewish presence in key Arab areas of the city and “incrementally render a sustainable two-state solution unfeasible” by preventing establishment of a Palestinian capital there.
The diplomats recommended several potentially sensitive steps to bolster the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem, including steering European tour operators away from sites linked to “pro-settler organizations,” discouraging Europeans from buying property in East Jerusalem and possibly denying E.U. entry to “violent settlers” in East Jerusalem.
Israel distinguishes between Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and its settlements in the occupied West Bank, but many international organizations describe both as settlements.
The envoys’ document was intended as a “sober, serious and factual account” of trends in East Jerusalem, said a European diplomat, who spoke off the record because the document has not been publicly released.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministers in Brussels were debating a resolution meant to assert a more forceful European voice in a process that, under the Obama administration, has ground to a halt.
Israel has called for a resumption of negotiations, but the Palestinian Authority has said it will not participate unless Israel imposes a full freeze on the construction of Jewish settlements and neighborhoods in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — beyond the partial, 10-month freeze recently put in place.
A draft E.U. resolution referred to creation of a Palestinian state “with East Jerusalem as its capital” — language that, to Israel, appeared more decisive than the long-standing European and U.S. policy of supporting a negotiated resolution to the competing claims over the city.
The phrase was deleted from the final text, issued Tuesday, which called for renewed talks and said Jerusalem’s future status as a dual capital should be addressed “through negotiations.”
Israel annexed the city’s eastern neighborhoods and some surrounding areas after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The move has not been recognized internationally.
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Season’s greetings Fred, there is an awful lot of truth in what you say, the Islamonazis and Islamofascists are only too happy that some folks in Europe on the far Right, seem to have an obsessional and allmost insane hatred of Jews to the point that, Muslims are in many ways bringing in to reality what the Third Reich falsely accused the Jews of being at an ideological level and moral level and yet the far Right are still mouthing off their fantasies about the Jews. The far right has very little political and economic power in Europe and the serious pandering to Islamonazis and Islamofascists at a state level is being undertaken by mainstream ” conservative ” and ” socialist” political parties. In England, the British National Party under the direction of its leader Nick Griffin, went in a short time from being regarded as a thug lunatic party that embraced Nazi ideology to being seen as a party which can offer an effective challenge to the Islamist pandering of the Labour and Conservative Parties, because Griffin took a firm stand in opposition to Nazism and hatered of Jews. Nick Griffin is the only leader of a political party in Britain to have have shown unequivocal support for the recent Israel security actions in the Gazastrip. The far right dinosaurs in Europe can indulge their anti-Jewish fantasies as much as they like, but they would do well to remember this and that is if Muslims were to achieve the position of global power they crave, they might not just force conversion of Europeans to Islam at the point of gun, they might rather simply decide to exterminate the non-Arab population of Europe in the methodology the Third Reich to create Lebensraum for Arab settlers and Arab population growth.
I find it fascinating that the “Palestinians” are neither a separate culture, nor do they have their own language. They are Arab and Israel is surrounded by Arabs. Why should the eastern portion of Jerusalem – if split – automatically go to the Palestinians?
Historically, Israel and Jerusalem has been in the hands of Jewish people longer than any other group of people. Now, the world wants the Palestinians to have the eastern portion containing the Temple Mount?
Beyond this, why is it virtually illegal for Jews (and sometimes Christians) to go to the Temple Mount, yet Muslims come and go with ease?
The EU, if it is to do what is right for all people, should at least attempt to feign interest in Israeli rights.
But, it appears as though we are quickly moving to another time period when the Jews are blamed for everything. Is there another “Hitler” on the horizon as well?
Fred, there is an awful lot of truth in what you say, the Islamonazis and Islamofascists are only too happy that some folks in Europe on the far Right, seem to have an obsessional and allmost insane hatred of Jews to the point that, Muslims are in many ways bringing in to reality what the Third Reich falsely accused the Jews of being at an ideological level and moral level and yet the far Right are still mouthing off their fantasies about the Jews. The far right has very little political and economic power in Europe and the serious pandering to Islamonazis and Islamofascists at a state level is being undertaken by mainstream ” conservative ” and ” socialist” political parties. In England, the British National Party under the direction of its leader Nick Griffin, went in a short time from being regarded as a thug lunatic party that embraced Nazi ideology to being seen as a party which can offer an effective challenge to the Islamist pandering of the Labour and Conservative Parties, because Griffin took a firm stand in opposition to Nazism and hatered of Jews. Nick Griffin is the only leader of a political party in Britain to have have shown unequivocal support for the recent Israel security actions in the Gazastrip. The far right dinosaurs in Europe can indulge their anti-Jewish fantasies as much as they like, but they would do well to remember this and that is if Muslims were to achieve the position of global power they crave, they might not just force conversion of Europeans to Islam at the point of gun, they might rather simply decide to exterminate the non-Arab population of Europe in the methodology the Third Reich to create Lebensraum for Arab settlers and Arab population growth.
Hi Fred, there is an awful lot of truth in what you say, the Islamonazis and Islamofascists are only too happy that some folks in Europe on the far Right, seem to have an obsessional and allmost insane hatred of Jews to the point that, Muslims are in many ways bringing in to reality what the Third Reich falsely accused the Jews of being at an ideological level and moral level and yet the far Right are still mouthing off their fantasies about the Jews. The far right has very little political and economic power in Europe and the serious pandering to Islamonazis and Islamofascists at a state level is being undertaken by mainstream ” conservative ” and ” socialist” political parties. In England, the British National Party under the direction of its leader Nick Griffin, went in a short time from being regarded as a thug lunatic party that embraced Nazi ideology to being seen as a party which can offer an effective challenge to the Islamist pandering of the Labour and Conservative Parties, because Griffin took a firm stand in opposition to Nazism and hatered of Jews. Nick Griffin is the only leader of a political party in Britain to have have shown unequivocal support for the recent Israel security actions in the Gazastrip. The far right dinosaurs in Europe can indulge their anti-Jewish fantasies as much as they like, but they would do well to remember this and that is if Muslims were to achieve the position of global power they crave, they might not just force conversion of Europeans to Islam at the point of gun, they might rather simply decide to exterminate the non-Arab population of Europe in the methodology the Third Reich to create Lebensraum for Arab settlers and Arab population growth.