International recognition of Israel and Palestine in Europe.
Recognition of Israel and Palestine
Recognition of Israel only
Recognition of Palestine only
Israel/Palestine
Fourteen out of twenty-seven EU member states recognise the State of Palestine. In 2014, Sweden became the first country to recognise Palestine while being an EU member state.[5] Malta and Cyprus had recognized Palestine prior to joining the EU, as did a number of Central European member states when they were allied with the Soviet Union. However, some of these states, particularly the Czech Republic and Hungary, have emerged as Israel's closest allies in Europe.[5][6] On 28 May 2024, Norway, Ireland and Spain recognized the State of Palestine, the latter two being EU member-states. On 4 June 2024, Slovenia recognised Palestine in an overwhelming vote, reflecting a common historical aspiration.[7]
Representation
The EU maintains a representative office in Ramallah, accredited to the PNA.[8] The PLO's general delegation in Brussels, accredited to the EU,[9] was first established as an information and liaison bureau in September 1976.[10] Other representations are maintained in almost every European capital, many of which have been accorded full diplomatic status.[1] The EU's special envoy to the Middle East Peace Process is Sven Koopmans.[11]
In western Europe, Spain was the first country granting diplomatic status to a PLO representative, followed later by Portugal, Austria, France, Italy and Greece.[12]
Position on Israeli issues
The EU has insisted that it will not recognise any changes to the 1967 borders other than those agreed between the parties. Israel's settlement program has therefore led to some tensions, and EU states consider these settlements illegal under international law.[13][14]
In 2008, during the French presidency of the Council, the European Union strived to increase cooperation with the US on Middle-Eastern issues, inter alia with a view to coordinating common pressures on Israel.[15]
The EU has also been highly critical of Israeli military actions in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, often referring to them as "disproportionate" and "excessive force" and calling for an immediate cease-fire. During Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, the European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution calling for economic sanctions on Israel and an arms embargo on both parties. Following the Gaza War of 2008-2009, the European Parliament endorsed the Goldstone Report.[16] The EU has also been critical of Israel's Gaza blockade, referring to it as "collective punishment".[17]
Position on recognition
Votes on membership (UNESCO) and status (UNGA) of Palestine[18]
The EU first endorsed the idea of Palestinian statehood in its 1999 Berlin Declaration. Before that, the EU and its predecessor, the EC, had since 1973 through various declarations legitimized Palestinian rights in the form of recognizing the Palestinians as "a people", the need for them to have a "homeland" and the freedom to exercise their "right to self-determination".[19]
In July 2009, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana called for the United Nations to recognise the Palestinian state by a set deadline even if a settlement had not been reached: "The mediator has to set the timetable. If the parties are not able to stick to it, then a solution backed by the international community should ... be put on the table. After a fixed deadline, a UN Security Council resolution ... would accept the Palestinian state as a full member of the UN, and set a calendar for implementation."[20]
In December, the Council of the European Union endorsed a set of conclusions on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict which forms the basis of present EU policy.[21] It reasserted the objective of a two-state solution, and stressed that the union "will not recognise any changes to the pre-1967 borders including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties." It recalled that the EU "has never recognised the annexation of East Jerusalem" and that the State of Palestine must have its capital in Jerusalem.[22]
A year later, in December 2010, the Council reiterated these conclusions and announced its readiness, when appropriate, to recognise a Palestinian state, but encouraged a return to negotiations.[23] Eight of its 27 member states have recognised the State of Palestine.
In 2011, the Palestinian government called on the EU to recognise the State of Palestine in a United Nations resolution scheduled for 20 September. Mahmoud Abbas reiterated such calls in Brussels again in early 2018. EU member states grew divided over the issue. Some, including Spain, France and the United Kingdom, stated that they might recognise if talks did not progress, while others, including Germany and Italy, refused. Catherine Ashton said that the EU position would depend on the wording of the proposal.[24] At the end of August, Israel's defence minister Ehud Barak told Ashton that Israel was seeking to influence the wording: "It is very important that all the players come up with a text that will emphasise the quick return to negotiations, without an effort to impose pre-conditions on the sides."[25]
EU member states were divided in their vote on United Nations General Assembly resolution 67/19 in 2012, which recognized Palestine as a non-member observer state at the UN General Assembly. 14 member states voted for, 13 abstained and the Czech Republic voted against.[26]
In 2014, the European Union and the United States officially criticised Israel's settlement policies in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians regard as their de jure capital, and warned against the further construction of Israeli homes on disputed land.[citation needed]
In December 2014, the European Parliament voted in favour of a non-binding resolution calling for the recognition of Palestinian statehood as part of a two-state solution and alongside the development of the peace process with 498 votes in favour, 88 against and 111 abstentions.[27][28] In recent years, many European parliaments including France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Ireland and the United Kingdom have passed motions calling on their governments to recognize Palestine.[29]
On 9 December 2019, new EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said ministers "will deeply discuss the situation in the Middle East" when they meet again in Brussels on 20 January 2020. Ireland and Luxembourg are among a small group of countries that want the issue put on the agenda; in a letter to Borrell, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said that hopes for a two-state solution are "being dismantled piece by piece, day after day," and that it is time to consider recognizing Palestine as a state.[30]
In October 2023, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the "barbaric and terrorist attack" by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. He accused Israel of breaking international law by imposing a total blockade of the Gaza Strip.[31] The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, condemned the indiscriminate attacks by Hamas on Israel, calling it "terrorism in its most despicable form" and saying "Israel has the right to defend itself against such heinous attacks".[32] Spain’s Minister of social rights Ione Belarra accused EU of "being complicit in Israel's war crimes".[33]
EU Palestine support
The Palestinian news agency Maan reported in 2011, citing a senior official at the Palestinian Ministry of Planning, that the PA has received about US$20 billion in donor funds since the peace process began. It is estimated that the EU, including individual contributions by its members, has given €10 billion to the Palestinians since the peace process began in 1994. Economic assistance to the PA and the Palestinian people constitutes the EU’s highest per capita foreign aid program.[34] The current framework for EU engagement with Palestine[35] is the "2017-2020 – Towards a democratic and accountable Palestinian State"[36] which includes annual meetings to assess progress.[37] In October 2023, Ursula von der Leyen announced that EU humanitarian aid to Gaza would be tripled.[38] In July 2024, the European Commission announced loans and grants of €400 million to the Palestinian Authority as a measure to prevent its financial collapse.[39]
The history of the State of Palestine describes the creation and evolution of the State of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. During the Mandatory period, numerous plans of partition of Palestine were proposed but without the agreement of all parties. In 1947, the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was voted for. The leaders of the Jewish Agency for Palestine accepted parts of the plan, while Arab leaders refused it. This triggered the 1947–1949 Palestine war and led, in 1948, to the establishment of the state of Israel on a part of Mandate Palestine as the Mandate came to an end.
The Palestinian territories, also known as the Occupied Palestinian Territory, consist of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967.
Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights since the Six-Day War of 1967. It previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, the Palestinian territories was split between the Gaza Strip controlled by Egypt and the West Bank by Jordan, while the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights are parts of Egypt and Syria, respectively. The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, where Israel had transferred its parts of population there and built large settlements, is the longest military occupation in modern history.
The status of Jerusalem has been described as "one of the most intractable issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict" due to the long-running territorial dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, both of which claim it as their capital city. Part of this issue of sovereignty is tied to concerns over access to holy sites in the Abrahamic religions; the current religious environment in Jerusalem is upheld by the "Status Quo" of the former Ottoman Empire. As the Israeli–Palestinian peace process has primarily navigated the option of a two-state solution, one of the largest points of contention has been East Jerusalem, which was part of the Jordanian-annexed West Bank until the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967.
Israel is an associated state of the European Union. The relations between the two are framed in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, and the Union for the Mediterranean.
The next legislative elections in Palestine have been repeatedly postponed or cancelled. Most recently it was scheduled for 22 May 2021 according to a decree by President Mahmoud Abbas on 15 January 2021, but was indefinitely postponed on 29 April 2021.
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.
Ireland–Israel relations are foreign relations between Ireland and Israel.
Israel–Sweden relations refers to the bilateral relations between Israel and Sweden. Israel has an embassy in Stockholm while Sweden has an embassy in Tel Aviv, and honorary consulates in Eilat and Haifa. The diplomatic relations between the two countries were briefly damaged when Sweden became the first member of the European Union to recognize the State of Palestine in 2014. Previously, other members had recognized Palestine, but that was before they joined the EU.
The United Kingdom does not recognise Palestine as a state. The UK has a non-accredited Consulate General in Jerusalem that "represents the UK government in Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza", and works on "political, commercial, security and economic interests between the UK and the Palestinian territories". Husam Zomlot became head of the Palestine Mission to the United Kingdom in 2018. The State of Palestine was represented in London by Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian General Delegate to the United Kingdom between 2005 and 2018. Another former Palestinian General Delegate to the UK was Afif Safieh, who began in that role in 1990. The UK House of Commons voted in favor of recognizing Palestine as a state in 2014, as a contribution towards achieving a negotiated two-state solution. However, the UK government maintained its policy of reserving the right to recognize Palestine bilaterally at a more opportune time for peace efforts.
Denmark–Palestine relations refers to the contacts between Denmark and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Denmark has a representative office in Ramallah. The State of Palestine has a semi diplomatic Mission with the rank of ambassador in Copenhagen. Denmark has not recognized Palestine's existence and rights to sovereignty.
Palestine 194 is an ongoing diplomatic campaign by the Palestinian National Authority to gain membership in the United Nations for the State of Palestine. The name of the campaign is a reference to Palestine becoming the 194th member of the UN. The UN campaign is part of a strategy to gain international recognition of the State of Palestine, based on the borders prior to the Six-Day War, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The initiative developed during a two-year impasse in negotiations with Israel that followed the latter's refusal to freeze its settlement activities in the West Bank. The campaign was reported in the media as early as late 2009, and gained prominence during the leadup to the 66th Session of the General Assembly in September 2011. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas submitted the application to the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 23 September 2011, which the Security Council has yet to vote on.
United Nations General Assembly resolution 67/19 was a resolution accepting Palestine as a non-member observer state in the United Nations General Assembly. It was adopted by the sixty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly on 29 November 2012, the date of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and the 65th anniversary of the adoption by the General Assembly of resolution 181(II) on the Future Government of Palestine. The draft resolution was proposed by Palestine's representative at the United Nations. It, however, maintains the status of the Palestinian Liberation Organization as the representative of the Palestinian people within the United Nations system. Though strongly contested by the United States and the government of Israel, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed support for the measure. The motion was seen as largely symbolic, though it could allow Palestine to start proceedings at the International Criminal Court against Israel. Its timing, following a year in which Palestine obtained membership of UNESCO and the UN Security Council was unable "to make a unanimous recommendation" on their application for full UN membership, and coming several days after the completion of Operation Pillar of Defense, was also noted. The new status equates Palestine with that of the Holy See within the United Nations system and implicitly recognises Palestinian sovereignty.
As of June 2024, the State of Palestine is recognized as a sovereign state by 145 of the 193 member states of the United Nations, or just over 75% of all UN members. It has been a non-member observer state of the United Nations General Assembly since November 2012. This limited status is largely due to the fact that the United States, a permanent member of the UN Security Council with veto power, has consistently used its veto or threatened to do so to block Palestine's full UN membership.
The two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict proposes to resolve the conflict by establishing two nation states in former Mandatory Palestine. The implementation of a two-state solution would involve the establishment of an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel. The two-state solution is widely supported in the international community, as well as by the Palestinian Authority; however, Israel rejects the creation of a Palestinian state.
Iceland–Israel relations refers to the diplomatic relations between Iceland and Israel. Both nations are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organization.
On December 6, 2017, the United States of America officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital city of the State of Israel. American president Donald Trump, who signed the presidential proclamation, also ordered the relocation of the American diplomatic mission to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, constituting what is now the Embassy of the United States in Jerusalem, which was established on the grounds of the former Consulate General of the United States in Jerusalem. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the decision and praised the announcement by the Trump administration. On December 8, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson clarified that Trump's statement "did not indicate any final status for Jerusalem" and "was very clear that the final status, including the borders, would be left to the two parties to negotiate and decide" in reference to the recognition's impact on the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.
The Trump peace plan, officially titled "Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People", was a proposal by the Trump administration to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. President Donald Trump formally unveiled the plan in a White House press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 28 January 2020. The plan had been delayed by two years and previously rejected by the Palestinians, who were not invited to the meeting.
Palestine–Spain relations are the bilateral and diplomatic relations between these two countries. Palestine has an embassy in Madrid. Spain has a consulate general in East Jerusalem that serves the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.
Palestine has a diplomatic mission in Oslo, while Norway has a representative office in Al-Ram. Norway recognized the state of Palestine on May 28, 2024.
↑ Allen, D. & Pijpers, A. (1984). European foreign policy-making and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p.69. ISBN978-90-247-2965-4.
↑ Persson, Anders (2015). The EU and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 1971-2013: In Pursuit of a Just Peace. Lanham: Lexington Books. p.89. ISBN978-0739192443.
↑ Council of the European Union, "17218/09 (Presse 371)"(PDF), Press release, 2985th Council meeting on Foreign Affairs, Press Office, retrieved 2 August 2011
↑ Council of the European Union, "17835/10 (Presse 346)"(PDF), Press release, 3058th Council meeting on Foreign Affairs, Press Office, retrieved 2 August 2011
Musu, Costanza (2010). European Union Policy towards the Arab-Israeli Peace Process. The Quicksands of Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN978-0-230-55312-5.
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