Jean-Noel Barrot, the French Foreign Minister, is to ask the European Union to send a mission to monitor Palestinian elections scheduled for November, the first in two decades.
Speaking on arrival at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Wicklow, Ireland, Mr Barrot said there is “no more powerful way for a people aspiring to self-determination to express themselves fully in an election than by choosing leaders who will subsequently become fully legitimate interlocutors for the international community”.
“It is essential that these elections take place, I see no technical or logistical obstacle that is insurmountable,” he added.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leader, vowed last year to organise elections as part of a deal involving recognition of Palestinian statehood by France and 10 other countries, including the UK, Canada and Portugal.
Legislative elections are planned for November 28 and presidential elections for early next year. Mr Abbas, 90, has yet to confirm whether he will stand.
While the EU is the PA's most important financial donor, many European governments consider its leadership corrupt and ineffectual, and have long pushed for elections to be held. The PA has implemented governance reforms to continue unlocking EU funds.
Open mission
Mr Barrot said he would ask Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign affairs and security policy chief, to send a mission to Palestinian territories that would not be restricted to EU countries. “Other countries are keen for these elections to take place,” Mr Barrot said. “On that basis, we can make all the necessary arrangements to ensure they are held on schedule.”
Mr Abbas's current mandate should have ended in 2009, since when he has effectively ruled by decree. Elections announced for 2021 were pushed back indefinitely because of logistical issues in East Jerusalem, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.
Hamas won the last Palestinian elections in 2006, defeating Mr Abbas's Fatah party, which historically has dominated Palestinian politics.
Palestinian legislative elections are scheduled to take place shortly after Israeli polls, the run-up to which has seen politicians such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's Minister of National Security, escalate anti-Palestinian rhetoric.
Sanctions
Speaking in Ireland, Jose Manuel Albares, the Spanish Foreign Minister, said he would continue efforts to convince his counterparts to impose sanctions on Mr Ben-Gvir and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“When you say you are a minister of a democracy, you behave like such,” Mr Albares said. “You don't say things that are outrageous and against international law. And if you want to have a normal relation with EU, you have to behave like the minister of a democratic government.”
Efforts led by countries such as Spain, France and Sweden to implement an EU-wide ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements have failed due to opposition of countries including Germany.
Mr Barrot said he would continue raising the subject. “I will reiterate – as we did with Sweden before the summer – that the EU, which holds competence over trade matters, cannot accept products from illegal settlements in the West Bank entering EU territory illegally,” he said.
