[In meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
Spain’s Pedro Sanchez proposes international peace talks]
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SPANISH PM PROPOSES TALKS ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PALESTINIAN STATE
 
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November 23, 2023
Al Jazeera
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_ In meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
Spain’s Pedro Sanchez proposes international peace talks _

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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez
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called for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state after
meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Sanchez, whose new government was sworn in earlier this month,
proposed an international peace conference on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict during talks with Netanyahu on Thursday.

A roadmap for the future of Palestine
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The Socialist leader also met Israeli President Isaac Herzog and was
set for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah in
the Israeli-occupied West Bank later on Thursday before travelling on
to Egypt.

“Today, more than ever, we need to bring back a serious and credible
prospect for peace,” Sanchez said after talks with Netanyahu.
“Without a political settlement, we are bound to run again into a
never-ending cycle of violence.”

While Sanchez stressed that he backed Israel’s right to defend
itself following the “atrocities” carried out by Hamas, the
Palestinian group that governs Gaza, on October 7, he said the number
of Palestinians killed in Israel’s military response “is truly
unbearable”.

Around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed when Hamas fighters
from Gaza attacked southern Israel, according to Israeli authorities,
and around 240 others were taken as captives to Gaza.

Since the attack, Israel has bombarded Gaza in an air and ground
assault and severely restricted supplies of water, food and fuel to
the 2.3 million residents of the territory. More than 14,500 people,
including more than 6,000 children, have been killed in the Israeli
assault on Gaza, according to Palestinian authorities.

The last US-brokered round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks
collapsed in 2014 and the prospects of a revival appear to have dimmed
amid the continuing Israel-Hamas war.

Sanchez said he and unspecified colleagues had proposed holding an
international peace conference with the parties as soon as possible.
He said the European Union, Arab League and Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation had all endorsed the idea.

“It is in Israel’s interest to work for peace, and today, peace
means the establishment of a viable Palestinian state that includes
the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, according to the UN
resolutions,” he said.

United States officials have said the time is not right to try to
resume peace talks given the protracted intransigence of both sides.

Sanchez attended the meetings alongside his Belgian counterpart,
Alexander De Croo. Their two countries hold the current and upcoming
rotating presidencies of the Council of the European Union,
respectively.

Last week, Sanchez said a Union for the Mediterranean summit in
Barcelona on November 27-28 would be an “ideal place” to relaunch
Israeli-Palestinian dialogue as the two sides would “sit on an equal
footing” there.

Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs limited
parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, are members of the
Mediterranean grouping along with neighbours Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt
and Syria.

UK’S CAMERON MEETS NETANYAHU

In 1991, Madrid hosted a multilateral peace conference aimed at
resolving the conflict through negotiations based on a “land for
peace” formula, eventually leading to the 1993 Oslo interim accords
that set up the PA.

But a series of follow-up negotiations aimed at creating a Palestinian
state in territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war
foundered on intractable differences over borders, Palestinian
refugees, Israel’s steady expansion of settlements on occupied land,
and the status of Jerusalem.

As he was sworn in for a new term this month, Sanchez said his foreign
policy priority would be to “work in Europe and in Spain to
recognise the Palestinian state”.

Several smaller European nations such as Sweden and Malta have
recognised Palestine, but so far no major EU member has taken this
step.

Sanchez governs in a minority coalition with hard-left formation
Sumar. In October, Israel’s embassy to Spain accused some of
Sanchez’s ministers of aligning themselves with Hamas after a
hard-left cabinet minister called Israel’s military offensive in
Gaza “a genocide”.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron also met Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday after visiting
the south of the country. He said the agreed four-day truce
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an opportunity to get some of the Israeli captives out of Gaza and
that he hoped “everyone who is responsible and behind this agreement
can make it happen”.

“There’s no hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians,
between Israel and the Arab states, if we don’t eradicate this
murderous movement that threatens the future of all of us,” Cameron
said, referring to Hamas.

* Palestine
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* isreal
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* Palestinian Authority
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* Hamas
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* Pedro Sanchez
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