With Agency reports
Monday, there was a closed-door meeting during which E.U. foreign ministers pressed Israel’s top diplomat to ease civilian suffering in Gaza and move toward supporting the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Israel’s foreign minister, Yisrael Katz, surprised the 27 E.U. foreign ministers by screening a video of a pet project that would create an artificial island off Gaza as a logistics base to inspect cargo and passengers heading by sea into the territory.
The island could also include housing for Palestinians. The plan, Israeli officials said, was not an official government policy.
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Palestinian officials, Arab leaders and the Biden administration have said they strongly oppose any effort to resettle people from Gaza outside the enclave.
The meeting followed statements in recent days by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel doubling down on his opposition to a two-state solution.
The U.N. voted in 1947 to create an independent Arab state alongside a Jewish one, but the plan was rejected by neighboring Arab governments and Palestinian Arabs who wanted more land.
In the years since, plans for a two-state solution have been proposed and stymied by both Palestinian and Israeli leaders.
Meanwhile, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday that Israel cannot be allowed to unilaterally block the creation of a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza.
“One thing is clear — Israel cannot have the veto right to the self-determination of the Palestinian people,” Borrell told a Brussels press conference with his Egyptian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
The United Nations recognizes and has recognized many times the self-determination right of the Palestinian people. Nobody can veto it,” he added.
