ANKARA
By Satuk Bugra Kutlugun
A more positive view of Palestine is emerging in Europe, Palestine's ambassador to Turkey said in an interview with The Anadolu Agency.
Maarouf also called Europe to be more aggressive on Israel and the U.S. as well.
"We are expecting from Europe a real pressure not only on Israel. Israel and also the United States. Because I think a final decision is on the Americans’ hands. Not on Israelis' hands. If Europe succeeds in doing that, this means that we are getting closer to the solution and the end of this occupation," Ambassador Nabil Maarouf said.
The European Union is seeking to set "red lines" that Israeli policy should not cross in its moves in the occupied West Bank, Maarouf said.
The organization has stated policy that crossing any of these "red lines" by Israel may undermine the creation of a future Palestinian state alongside Israel, and that such moves would incite further European sanctions against Israel.
Meanwhile, a total of 274 U.K. members of parliament backed a motion on October 13 to recognize the state of Palestine as part of a two-state solution, with only 12 voting against.
"They -- the United Kingdom -- are not voting in favor of us but they did not vote against us, and that is a step forward," Maarouf said.
The Irish Senate also passed a motion Thursday calling on the government to recognize the State of Palestine.
The votes in the U.K. and Irish parliaments are non-binding and symbolic.
Maarouf emphasized the importance of the two-state solution.
"According to this solution, Palestinians have the right of establishing their state with the 1967 borders, which includes the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem," Maarouf said.
"We accept the demands of the international community on negotiating with the Israelis," Maarouf insisted, "but the Israelis continue to block the peace process refusing all the proposals, building more and more settlements and confiscating more land."
Maarouf said that President Abbas imposes one condition to continue negotiating, that is to finalize the borders.
"What does this mean? This means that, the main issue is to finalize the borders. If you finalize this, then there is no need to talk about settlements," Maarouf said, referring to ongoing Israeli settlements and house construction projects in Jerusalem.
"Israel is the only state which has no borders. No determined borders. The two-state solution says that all the occupied territories belong to Palestine. Let’s fix this line first. But no Israeli really plans to establish peace," Maarouf said.
Israel fears peace
Maarouf said that Israel uses the strategy of "no peace, no war," -- meaning that while war is not declared, fighting continues -- to keep from taking steps in its relations with Palestine.
"If a real peace is established, they know in their mind that it is the beginning of the end of Israel.
"Israelis even killed one of their own kind for the sake of ruining the peace process as well.
"They -- Israel -- want Palestinians under the control of Israel. The only person in Israel who believed in the establishment of a peace was Yitzhak Rabin, and he was assassinated in 1995, only two years after the first Oslo Accord," Maarouf said.
The first Oslo Accord was set up in 1993; it was the first face-to-face agreement made between Israel and Palestine seeking a resolution to the conflict.
Although the peace process continued with a second Oslo agreement signed by the then prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on September 28 1995, Rabin was assassinated on November 4th 1995 by an Israeli ultra-nationalist named Yigal Amir.
"Assassinating Rabin meant assassinating the peace process. From that point, we have been negotiating with Israelis. In the following 20 years, Palestinian was re-occupied. In 1995, there were 100,000 settlers in the West Bank, now there are more than 700,000 settlers. While the negotiation process was ongoing, they destroyed Gaza three times and the West Bank once," Maarouf explained.
Israel's devastating 51-day offensive on Gaza left some 2,147 people dead and 11,000 injured -- the vast majority of them civilians -- while leaving thousands of homes in ruins. The attacks ended with the announcement on August 26 of an open-ended cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian resistance factions.
www.aa.com.tr/en
