Palestinian leader appeals to EU for help to end Israeli occupation

Mahmoud Abbas addresses the European parliament, seeking an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories

European Council president Donald Tusk welcomes Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, left, ahead of a meeting in Brussels, Belgium on June 23, 2016. Francois Lenoir/Reuters

BRUSSELS // Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday appealed to the European Union for help to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and support for a lasting peace agreement.

“You are our friends, help us,” Mr Abbas told European legislators in Brussels. “Israel has turned our country into an open-air prison.”

“Why is international law not being applied in the case of Israel?” Mr Abbas said to applause.

He said the occupation was only encouraging extremists and fomenting terrorism.

Mr Abbas’ address to the European parliament came as the international community is searching for ways to revive peace talks.

The EU has promised an “unprecedented package” of political and economic support to both sides should they reach a final agreement, amid a new European push to get the peace process back on track based on a two-state solution.

On Monday, EU foreign ministers backed a French initiative to organise an international conference on the Middle East, aimed at restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks deadlocked since 2014.

The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed the French initiative, describing it as an “international diktat”, and offered instead to hold direct talks with Mr Abbas.

However, the Palestinians want the international community’s involvement, saying that years of talks with Israel have not yielded results.

They seek the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip – areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war – for a future Palestinian state. The international community backs the Palestinian position but Mr Netanyahu refuses to accept Israel’s pre-1967 lines as the basis for a future border.

With the gaps so wide and Mr Netanyahu’s government dominated by hardliners opposed to Palestinian independence, the Palestinians say there is no point in returning to the negotiating table.

Mr Abbas on Thursday turned down an offer to meet Israeli president Reuven Rivlin, who was also in Brussels.

Mr Rivlin’s office said the EU had offered to set up a meeting with Mr Abbas but Palestinian officials said they turned that suggestion down.

Mr Abbas rejected the offer because Mr Rivlin, whose position is largely ceremonial, does not speak on behalf of Mr Netanyahu, a Palestinian official said.

Mr Rivlin expressed disappointment that Mr Abbas had “refused again and again to meet with Israeli leaders, and turns again and again to support of the international community”.

“We can talk directly and find a way to build confidence,” Mr Rivlin said after talks with the EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.

Israeli and US officials said on Thursday that the stalled peace efforts would be on the agenda when Mr Netanyahu meets the US secretary of state John Kerry in Rome on Sunday.

Observers have noted that the meeting comes ahead of a report on the peace process by the Middle East Quartet, comprising the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.

The diplomatic contact group is expected to be critical of Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank.

“There are plenty of issues coming up that merit Israel and the United States’ discussion,” state department spokesman John Kirby said, citing regional counterterrorism efforts and the crisis in Syria.

“The Quartet is preparing a report on the situation of the ground. It will include recommendations that will help inform international discussions on the best way to advance a two-state solution.”

Mr Kirby said the report would “largely” reflect the Quartet’s previous statement in September last year.

This, among other concerns, cited Israel’s “ongoing settlement activity and the high rate of demolition of Palestinian structures” as “dangerously imperilling the viability” of a two-state solution.

Mr Netanyahu recently spoke over the phone with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and on Tuesday he called Russian president Vladimir Putin and discussed “key aspects of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process”, according to a Russian statement.

The Israeli premier will also meet UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon in Jerusalem on Monday. The UN chief will be in Israel and the Palestinian territories as part of a Middle East tour.

* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse