EU efforts on the peace process this quarter focused on reviving PalestinianIsraeli peace talks and on the anticipated 9/2011 Palestinian statehood bid at the UN. European parliament pres. Jerzy Buzek toured (ca. 6/13–15) Israel and the Palestinian territories. In his address to the Knesset on 6/15, he stated that the EU supported both Obama’s call for negotiations based on 1967 borders with agreed swaps and France’s proposal for a conference in Paris to explore reviving peace talks (see “Revival of the French Initiative” above). Buzek also visited Gaza (6/13), where he called on Israel to lift its blockade immediately; and Ramallah (6/14), where he told PA officials that while the EU does not oppose Palestinian unilateral efforts at the UN, it strongly favors negotiations as the best route to a viable, long-standing peace with Israel.
As was the case last quarter (see QU in JPS 160), Palestinian and Israel officials lobbied EU members throughout the quarter to either support or oppose the Palestinian statehood initiative at the UN. In addition, 20 prominent Israelis (including former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg, former FMin. dir-gen. Alon Leil, and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman) signed a 5/27 letter to European leaders urging them to support a Palestinian declaration of statehood as a “positive, constructive step” given the peace impasse.
On 7/11, 106 of 736 members of the European parliament sent a letter to EU foreign policy adviser Catherine Ashton urging the EU to oppose the Palestinians’ unilateral bid for statehood. Ashton was in Washington for the senior-level Quartet meetings to discuss possibly launching a new initiative to revive the peace talks (see “The Quartet Meets” above).