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 Italy |  Palestine |
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Italy has yet to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state, partly due to a desire to await the outcome of the currently stalled negotiations, and partly because the majority of European Union countries do not recognize it either. Nevertheless, Italy firmly backs the creation of the State of Palestine in accordance with the two-state solution. It also helps to fund UNRWA, which assists Palestinian refugees. Both nations are a part of the Union for the Mediterranean. [1]
The first contact between Italy and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) began in the 1960s. The Italian government was one of the first Western governments to establish relations with the PLO. Since then, Italy has been a strong supporter of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination. [2] The relations between Italy and Palestine are based on economic, tourism, security, and education cooperation. For instance, Italy provides development assistance to the Palestinian Authority in order to help it build infrastructure and create jobs. In addition, Italy is a major tourist destination for Palestinians, and the two countries have worked together to improve security in the region. Finally, Italy has also provided scholarships for Palestinian students to study in Italian universities. [3]
In 2013, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta visited the Palestinian territories as part of a larger tour of the Middle East; Letta's visit was seen by analysts as an effort to promote peace in the region and to strengthen ties between Italy and the Palestinians. [4] However, others noted how the Letta cabinet also kept making efforts to consolidate relations with Israel, while maintaining a cautious approach in various debates regarding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, in line with previous cabinets. [5]
On 27 February 2015, a non-binding resolution urging the government to recognize a Palestinian State, presented by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and the Democratic Party, was passed by the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament, with 300 votes in favor and 45 against. [6] [7] At the same time, the Chamber of Deputies approved another motion, presented by New Centre-Right and other parties, with 237 votes in favor and 84 against; [7] it called for a "timely return to direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians", [6] in order to fulfill the Oslo Agreement, and subordinated the recognition of Palestine as a state to "a political agreement between Al-Fatah and Hamas [...] through the recognition of the State Of Israel and the abandonment of violence". [7] A third motion explicitly calling for the full and formal recognition of the Palestinian State, presented by Left Ecology Freedom [6] and the Five Star Movement, [7] was rejected by the same house, with 56 votes in favor and 317 against. [7]
As of 2022, Italy donated a total amount of €14 million to the UNRWA, a UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees, seven million of which were invested in the program's main services. [8] In June 2023, the Italian government supported the UNRWA with an additional €1 million-worth donation. [9] However, following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October of the same year, the Italian government suspended its funding to the UNRWA; the decision was kept undisclosed until 27 January 2024, when Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani publicly confirmed it, [10] after several other EU and international countries also decided to temporarily stop their funding over a series of allegations made by Israel against the agency, including that a number of its Gaza Strip staff had been involved in the Hamas-led attack. [10] [11] On 25 May 2024, following a meeting between Tajani and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa at the Palazzo della Farnesina in Rome, the former announced that Italy would restore its financial support to the UNRWA in a press statement, [8] [12] albeit under the condition that "not even a penny risks ending up supporting terrorism". [13] [14] According to Tajani, the Italian government approved a €35 million recovery package for the Palestinian population, five of which would be allocated to the UNRWA, [8] [12] with the remaining €30 million being assigned to the Food for Gaza initiative, [13] [14] in collaboration with the FAO, the PAM and the Red Crescent. [14]
On 27 October 2023, Italy abstained from voting on an UN General Assembly resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas war, [15] before taking the same stance on a similar resolution on 12 December of the same year. [16] [17] However, on 25 January 2024, the Democratic Party and its secretary, Elly Schlein, presented a non-binding resolution urging the government to "sustain every initiative aimed to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire" in the war; [18] [19] following the addition of several amendments and two phone calls between Schlein and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, [18] the resolution was approved by the Chamber of Deputies, [18] [20] [21] with MPs from the right-wing parties supporting the Meloni cabinet abstaining from voting. [18]
On 10 May 2024, Italy abstained from voting on another UN General Assembly resolution which upgraded Palestine's rights in the United Nations as an Observer State; [22] [23] the Italian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Maurizio Massari, explained the decision by stating that Italy "shared the goal of global and long-standing peace that could only be reached through a two-state solution", but believed that the aforementioned agreement "should be reached via direct negotiations between the [two] sides". [23]
The Gaza Strip, or simply Gaza, is a polity and the smaller of the two Palestinian territories. On the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza is bordered by Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the east and north.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the Nakba, the 1948 Palestine War, and subsequent conflicts, as well as their descendants, including legally adopted children. As of 2019, more than 5.6 million Palestinians are registered with UNRWA as refugees.
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict about land and self-determination within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the status of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, borders, security, water rights, the permit regime, Palestinian freedom of movement, and the Palestinian right of return.
Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country over the course of the 1947–1949 Palestine war and the Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refugees live in or near 68 Palestinian refugee camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 2019 more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees were registered with the United Nations.
The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has referred to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as "the Occupied Palestinian Territory", and this term was used as the legal definition by the ICJ in its advisory opinion of July 2004. The term occupied Palestinian territory was used by the United Nations and other international organizations between October 1999 and December 2012 to refer to areas controlled by the Palestinian National Authority, but from 2012, when Palestine was admitted as one of its non-member observer states, the United Nations started using exclusively the name State of Palestine. The European Union (EU) also uses the term "occupied Palestinian territory". The government of Israel and its supporters use the label "disputed territories" instead.
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in the southern Levant region of West Asia. It encompasses two disconnected territories — the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, collectively known as the Palestinian territories — within the larger region of Palestine. The country shares its borders with Israel to north, west and south, Jordan to the east and Egypt to the southwest. It has a combined land area of 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq mi) while its population exceeds five million people. Its proclaimed capital is Jerusalem while Ramallah serves as its administrative center and Gaza City was its largest city until massive population movements began in 2023 due to the Israeli invasion of the Gaza strip. Arabic is the official language. The majority of Palestinians practice Islam while Christianity also has a significant presence.
Camps are set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to accommodate Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA, who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War or in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967, and their patrilineal descendants. There are 68 Palestinian refugee camps, 58 official and 10 unofficial, ten of which were established after the Six-Day War while the others were established in 1948 to 1950s.
Issues relating to the State of Israel and aspects of the Arab–Israeli conflict and more recently the Iran–Israel conflict occupy repeated annual debate times, resolutions and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict as of January 2010.
International aid has been provided to Palestinians since at least the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The Palestinians view the aid as keeping the Israeli–Palestinian peace process going, while Israelis and other foreign policy authorities have raised concerns that it is used to fund terrorism and removes the imperative for Palestinians to negotiate a settlement of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. As a provision of the Oslo Accords, international aid was to be provided to the Palestinians to ensure economic solvency for the Palestinian National Authority (PA). In 2004, it was reported that the PA, within the West Bank and Gaza Strip, receives one of the highest levels of aid in the world. In 2006, economic sanctions and other measures were taken by several countries against the PA, including suspension of international aid following Hamas' victory at the Palestinian Legislative Council election. Aid to the PA resumed in 2008 following the Annapolis Conference, where Hamas was not invited. Aid has been provided to the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian non-governmental organizations (PNGOs) as well as Palestinian political factions by various foreign governments, international organizations, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), and charities, besides other sources.
Issues relating to the State of Palestine and aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict occupy continuous debates, resolutions, and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, as of January 2010, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict.
The Hamas–UNRWA Holocaust dispute erupted on 31 August 2009 following a perception in the Gaza Strip that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) planned to include a course on human rights that speaks about the Holocaust in the eighth-grade curriculum of preparatory schools it runs in the territory. The militant Islamic movement Hamas, which partially controls the Gaza Strip, protested, calling the Holocaust "a lie made up by the Zionists" and demanding the removal of the offending content from the curriculum. Some officials of the United Nations agency initially responded by denying that it teaches the subject of the Holocaust in its schools or that it plans to teach it in its new curriculum. This denial drew criticism from various groups and individuals.
China–Palestine relations, also referred to as Sino–Palestinian relations, encompass the long bilateral relationship between China and Palestine dating back from the early years of the Cold War.
Relations between the European Union and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) were established in 1975 as part of the Euro-Arab Dialogue. The EU is a member of the Quartet and is the single largest donor of foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) is the unicameral legislature of the Palestinian Authority, elected by the Palestinian residents of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It currently comprises 132 members, elected from 16 electoral districts of the Palestinian Authority. The PLC has a quorum requirement of two-thirds, and since 2006 Hamas and Hamas-affiliated members have held 74 of the 132 seats in the PLC. The PLC's activities were suspended in 2007 and remained so as of November 2023, while PLC committees continue working at a low rate and parliamentary panel discussions are still occurring.
United Nations General Assembly Resolution ES-10/21 is a resolution of the tenth emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly relating to the Israel–Hamas war.
The Israel–Hamas war sparked a major diplomatic crisis, with many countries around the world reacting strongly to the conflict that affected the momentum of regional relations. At least nine countries took the drastic step of recalling their ambassadors and cutting diplomatic ties with Israel. The conflict has also resulted in a renewed focus on a two-state solution to the ongoing conflict.
New Zealand–Palestine relations refer to foreign relations between New Zealand and the State of Palestine. New Zealand does not recognise Palestine as a country.
Palestine–Philippines relations refer to foreign relations between the State of Palestine and the Republic of the Philippines. The two nations have many common points that they should capitalize on with the aim of enhancing bilateral relations. They are members of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue, Group of 77 and the Non-Aligned Movement.
The Israel–Hamas war has had significant effects on some major European Union member countries and institutions.
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