RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM: The European Union will freeze planned upgrade of relations with Israel, a source at the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.
The source told the daily Haaretz that the freeze follows Israel’s December-January offensive in Gaza Strip, as well as the refusal by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to openly and directly support the creation of a Palestinian state.
In Brussels, the European Commission said yesterday Israel must back the creation of a Palestinian state and recommit to the Middle East peace process before the EU can deepen ties with the Jewish state.
“We believe that good and trustful relations with Israel are essential in order to make our voice heard,” the EU’s External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told reporters in Brussels. “We do not believe, however, that the time is indeed ripe to go beyond the current level of relations,” she added.
An internal Foreign Ministry document last week stated that following the Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip, diplomatic bodies in a number of European countries have called for a freeze on the upgrade, citing the pressure of domestic public opinion. Four European states have already said that if Israel did not agree to a two-state solution, they would oppose upgrading relations. Under such circumstances, the upgrade would have to be shelved since a unanimous vote is required to implement it.
The deputy director general of the Swedish Foreign Ministry, Robert Rydberg, who visited Israel ahead of his country’s assuming the rotating EU presidency in July, was told by the new Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Dan Ayalon that Israel is reassessing its peace policy.
Meanwhile, Israel’s mayor of Jerusalem rebuffed yesterday Palestinian and Western calls for a halt to demolitions in the city’s Arab eastern half, saying laws that prohibit illegal building were being enforced.
Mayor Nir Barkat said his goal was to maintain a Jewish majority in Jerusalem but denied that demolitions of Palestinian homes were meant to drive them out.
The demolitions, and calls by Barkat to expand Jewish settlements on occupied land, have stoked tensions in the city, and put Israel on a possible collision course with its US and European allies.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the demolitions, and the proposed construction of new homes on West Bank land, “will mean killing the two-state solution forever.”
— With input from agencies
