As noted above (see “Jordan Hosts Israeli-Palestinian ‘Exploratory Talks’”), after Israeli-Palestinian exploratory talks collapsed, UN Secy.-Gen. Ban made (1/31–2/2) a special trip to the region to meet with Jordan’s King Abdallah and FM Judeh, PA pres. Abbas, and Israeli PM Netanyahu to encourage the parties to continue the dialogue. He urged Israel to draft a package of goodwill gestures, including a settlement freeze, to offer in exchange for the Palestinians agreeing to resume direct talks. Ban also made (2/2) a brief visit to Gaza to inaugurate a UN-funded housing project. Relatives of Palestinians jailed in Israel tried to block his entry to the Erez crossing to protest his refusal to meet with them. During the visit, Ban called on Israel to maintain the cease-fire with Gaza and allow Gaza’s borders to open for trade. Later, he addressed the Herzliya conference, telling Israeli officials and analysts to “think carefully about how to empower those on the other side who wish for peace.”
With Palestine having achieved full membership in UNESCO last quarter (see QU in JPS 162), PA Tourism and Antiquities M Hamdan Taha stated (11/21) that the government’s next priority would be to seek world heritage status for the old cities of Hebron and Jericho. An application for Bethlehem was already in the works and was expected to have a better chance of approval now that Palestine has membership. The PA also planned to seek recovery of artifacts looted by Israel, increase funds for preservation and excavations, and use its status to force Israel to stop calling West Bank sites “Israeli antiquities.” On 12/13, PA Pres. Abbas and UNESCO Dir. Gen. Irina Bokova attended a formal ceremony to raise the Palestinian flag outside the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The Palestinians made no further efforts to gain membership in UN bodies this quarter.
On 12/20, after a UNSC briefing on the Middle East, 14 UNSC members came out in strong, united denunciation of the U.S. (without naming it directly) for blocking all criticism either of Israel’s new settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank or of escalating settler violence, as well as for threatening to veto any UNSC res. supporting Palestinian statehood. Immediately after, British UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant read a statement prepared jointly by the UNSC’s EU members (Britain, France, Germany, and Portugal) calling recent Israeli settlement and settler actions “devastating” to the 2-state solution. Emphasizing that “the viability of the Palestinian state that we want to see and the two-state solution that is essential for Israel’s long-term security are threatened by the systematic and deliberate expansion of settlements,” which it called “illegal under international law,” the statement declared that the “mutually reinforcing objectives” of Palestinian statehood and Israeli security could not be achieved as long as settlement activity continues (see Doc. A1). Shocked by the tone of the statement, Israel denounced (12/21) the EU states for interfering in Israel’s internal affairs. Israeli FM spokesman Yigal Palmor added: “We felt that the European statement broke all the diplomatic rules. You aren’t meant to issue such a harsh statement by surprise, without prior consultation.”