PARIS: French lawmakers voted yesterday in favour of recognising Palestine as a state, sparking an immediate angry reaction from Israel which said such “unilateral measures” would harm efforts towards Middle East peace.
Following hot on the heels of similar votes in Britain and Spain, French MPs voted 339 to 151 in favour of a motion urging the government to recognise the state of Palestine as a way of achieving a “definitive resolution of the conflict.”
The vote — which is non-binding on the government but highly symbolic — comes as European countries seek alternative ways to restart the stalled Middle East process.
Sweden’s government has gone even further, officially recognising Palestine as a state in a controversial move that prompted Israel to recall its ambassador.
But the French vote result still prompted a swift and angry response from Tel Aviv, which said it would send the “wrong message” to the region and would be counterproductive to the drive towards peace.
The Palestinian leadership, meanwhile, expressed its “gratitude” for the vote and urged Paris to “translate its parliament’s vote into action”.
During a debate on the issue on Friday, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Paris would recognise Palestine if diplomatic efforts failed again and urged a resolution to the Middle East conflict within two years.
France is spearheading a drive at the United Nations to unfreeze the moribund peace process and the Palestinian envoy to the UN said earlier yesterday a draft resolution could be submitted to the Security Council by mid-December.
Riyad Mansour said the text was set to lay out a time frame for negotiations on a final peace deal and possibly a deadline for Palestinian statehood.
It would also pave the way for a last-ditch international conference that France has offered to host.
This European initiative was expected to be discussed in Brussels when US Secretary of State John Kerry holds talks with European ministers during this week’s Nato meeting.
“If these efforts fail. If this last attempt at a negotiated settlement does not work, then France will have to do its duty and recognise the state of Palestine without delay and we are ready to do that,” Fabius told MPs on Friday.
At a pan-European level, the European Parliament is expected to hold a vote later this month on recognising Palestine and EU foreign policy supremo Federica Mogherini is also pushing for the creation of a Palestine state.
AFP
