by JULIO GODOI
Divisions that have surfaced within the European Union over recognition of the Palestinian Authority as an independent and sovereign state are unlikely to be resolved ahead of a crucial vote in the United Nations next week.
A two-state settlement is part of the long-term official EU line on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But while several European countries, led by France, are partially supporting the PA claim, four countries, particularly Germany, are likely to oppose the move.
Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic are risking an open schism within the EU that would undermine the group’s ability to decisively intervene in conflicting geopolitical issues.
“European governments currently opposing recognition of a Palestinian state should reconsider their attitude and work instead within the EU framework to pursue the European line of consistently support a two-state settlement,” Muriel Asseburg, head of the research division on Middle East and Africa at the Berlin-based German institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP, after its German name), told IPS.
The European schism surfaced prominently at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Polish city Sopot on Sep. 3-4.
French foreign minister Alain Juppé called on his peers to act unanimously in order to ensure that “neither Israel nor the PA suffer a defeat, nor the U.S. be forced into isolated support of Israel.”
But Germany is reluctant to support the PA demand for recognition as an independent state. German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle said in Sopot that “Germany has a particular responsibility towards Israel” as consequence of the German Nazi persecution and obliteration of the European Jewish population during World War II.
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