Zarvan
ELITE MEMBER
- Apr 28, 2011
- 54,492
- 87
- Country
- Location
PA/Huffington Post UK
Posted: 13/10/2014 22:16 BST Updated: 14/10/2014 01:12 BST
The Government is not bound to do anything as a result of the vote and speaking in the backbench business debate, Middle East Minister Tobias Ellwood said a Palestinian state would only be recognised when the time was right, adding that the timing of when the UK opts to accept Palestinian statehood is "critical", insisting: "You can after all only play this card once."
The Conservative front-bencher added the Israeli occupation would also need to end to make Palestinian statehood a reality. Mr Ellwood spoke as the Commons debated a motion encouraging the Government to recognise Palestine as a state, a move backed by Labour along with former foreign secretary Jack Straw's amendment to recognise Palestine as a state as a "contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution".
SEE ALSO:
The debate follows the collapse of peace talks between Israel and Palestine and a summer conflict in Gaza which claimed the lives of more than 2,100 Palestinians - mostly civilians - as well as 70 Israelis, all but six soldiers. Replying for the Government, Mr Ellwood said Israel "lives in a tough neighbourhood" and has a right to defend itself.
But he said Israel's settlement building made it hard for its friends, which Britain considers itself to be, to make the case that it was committed to peace. Asked if the consequences of MPs backing a Palestinian state would be helpful, neutral or negative, Mr Ellwood replied: "We have made our position absolutely very clear that Britain defends the right to choose our moment which is appropriate for the peace process and when we make that bilateral decision."
He went on: "We commend the leadership of (Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas) and (prime minister Rami Hamdallah), who I met last week, and their commitment to securing cooperation and institutional reform. Yet despite their commitment and the support of donors such as the UK, the aspirations of the Palestinian people cannot be fully realised until there is an end to the occupation ... and we believe this will only come through negotiations.
"That is why following the Cairo conference the sense of urgency was recognised, a point I just made, and why the UK hopes that a serious process can urgently resume. That is the time to readdress these issues. Only an end to the occupation will ensure that Palestinian statehood becomes a reality on the ground. The UK will bilaterally recognise a Palestinian state when we judge that it can best help bring about the peace."
On what difference voting in favour of the motion would make, Mr Ellwood said: "You can after all only play this card. Once it's done, you cannot repeat it so the timing of this is critical." He added: "The UK will recognise a Palestinian state at a time most helpful to the peace process because a negotiated end to that occupation is the most effective way for Palestinian aspirations of statehood to be met on the ground."
Tory Robert Halfon (Harlow) said: "I agree there should be a Palestinian state - in fact not many realise there is already a Palestinian state called Jordan. "It was created by the British in 1921 and originally called Trans Jordan. After the 1948/49 war against the newly created state of Israel, the Jordanian monarch Abdullah even called himself the King of Jordan and Palestine as his country controlled the West Bank.
"The vast majority of Arabs currently in Jordan are in fact Palestinian Arabs. If we are not careful we could end up with three Palestinian states: to be precise, one and two state-lets. One controlled by the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan, whose eastern borders are now threatened by Isis, one controlled by Fatah in the West Bank and one controlled by Hamas in Gaza."
RELATED ON HUFFPOST:
MORE:
Commons VotePalestineUK NEWS
Suggest a correction
MPs Vote To Recognise Palestinian Statehood
@WebMaster @Horus @Kaan @Xeric @Slav Defence @nair @Areesh @Indos @al-Hasani @Yzd Khalifa @Arabian Legend @Mosamania @Oscar @RazPaK @AUz @qamar1990 @GURU DUTT @500
A Symbolic Vote in Britain Recognizes a Palestinian State
By STEPHEN CASTLE and JODI RUDORENOCT. 13, 2014
Photo
Wearing Palestinian and British flags outside the Parliament buildings in London on Monday.CreditLuke Macgregor/Reuters
Continue reading the main story
Posted: 13/10/2014 22:16 BST Updated: 14/10/2014 01:12 BST
The Government is not bound to do anything as a result of the vote and speaking in the backbench business debate, Middle East Minister Tobias Ellwood said a Palestinian state would only be recognised when the time was right, adding that the timing of when the UK opts to accept Palestinian statehood is "critical", insisting: "You can after all only play this card once."
The Conservative front-bencher added the Israeli occupation would also need to end to make Palestinian statehood a reality. Mr Ellwood spoke as the Commons debated a motion encouraging the Government to recognise Palestine as a state, a move backed by Labour along with former foreign secretary Jack Straw's amendment to recognise Palestine as a state as a "contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution".
SEE ALSO:
- Politicians Engage In War Of Words Ahead Of Divisive Commons Vote
- Middle East Minister's Warns 'You Can Only Play This Card Once'
- BLOG: Why I'm Abstaining On Palestine
- BLOG: By Voting For Recognition, MPs Will Vote For Equality
- BLOG: Recognising Palestine Risks Extending Legitimacy To Hamas
The debate follows the collapse of peace talks between Israel and Palestine and a summer conflict in Gaza which claimed the lives of more than 2,100 Palestinians - mostly civilians - as well as 70 Israelis, all but six soldiers. Replying for the Government, Mr Ellwood said Israel "lives in a tough neighbourhood" and has a right to defend itself.
But he said Israel's settlement building made it hard for its friends, which Britain considers itself to be, to make the case that it was committed to peace. Asked if the consequences of MPs backing a Palestinian state would be helpful, neutral or negative, Mr Ellwood replied: "We have made our position absolutely very clear that Britain defends the right to choose our moment which is appropriate for the peace process and when we make that bilateral decision."
He went on: "We commend the leadership of (Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas) and (prime minister Rami Hamdallah), who I met last week, and their commitment to securing cooperation and institutional reform. Yet despite their commitment and the support of donors such as the UK, the aspirations of the Palestinian people cannot be fully realised until there is an end to the occupation ... and we believe this will only come through negotiations.
"That is why following the Cairo conference the sense of urgency was recognised, a point I just made, and why the UK hopes that a serious process can urgently resume. That is the time to readdress these issues. Only an end to the occupation will ensure that Palestinian statehood becomes a reality on the ground. The UK will bilaterally recognise a Palestinian state when we judge that it can best help bring about the peace."
On what difference voting in favour of the motion would make, Mr Ellwood said: "You can after all only play this card. Once it's done, you cannot repeat it so the timing of this is critical." He added: "The UK will recognise a Palestinian state at a time most helpful to the peace process because a negotiated end to that occupation is the most effective way for Palestinian aspirations of statehood to be met on the ground."
Tory Robert Halfon (Harlow) said: "I agree there should be a Palestinian state - in fact not many realise there is already a Palestinian state called Jordan. "It was created by the British in 1921 and originally called Trans Jordan. After the 1948/49 war against the newly created state of Israel, the Jordanian monarch Abdullah even called himself the King of Jordan and Palestine as his country controlled the West Bank.
"The vast majority of Arabs currently in Jordan are in fact Palestinian Arabs. If we are not careful we could end up with three Palestinian states: to be precise, one and two state-lets. One controlled by the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan, whose eastern borders are now threatened by Isis, one controlled by Fatah in the West Bank and one controlled by Hamas in Gaza."
RELATED ON HUFFPOST:
MORE:
Commons VotePalestineUK NEWS
Suggest a correction
MPs Vote To Recognise Palestinian Statehood
@WebMaster @Horus @Kaan @Xeric @Slav Defence @nair @Areesh @Indos @al-Hasani @Yzd Khalifa @Arabian Legend @Mosamania @Oscar @RazPaK @AUz @qamar1990 @GURU DUTT @500
A Symbolic Vote in Britain Recognizes a Palestinian State
By STEPHEN CASTLE and JODI RUDORENOCT. 13, 2014
Photo
Wearing Palestinian and British flags outside the Parliament buildings in London on Monday.CreditLuke Macgregor/Reuters
Continue reading the main story
- LONDON — Against a backdrop of growing impatience across Europe with Israeli policy, Britain’s Parliament overwhelmingly passed a nonbinding resolution Monday night to give diplomatic recognition to aPalestinian state. The vote was a symbolic but potent indication of how public opinion has shifted since the breakdown of American-sponsored peace negotiations and the conflict in Gaza this summer.
Though the outcome of the 274-to-12 parliamentary vote was not binding on the British government, the debate was the latest evidence of how support for Israeli policies, even among staunch allies of Israel, is giving way to more calibrated positions and in some cases frustrated expressions of opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance toward the Palestinians.
Opening the debate, Grahame Morris, the Labour Party lawmaker who promoted it, said Britain had a “historic opportunity” to take “this small but symbolically important step” of recognition.
Richard Ottaway, a Conservative lawmaker and chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, said that he had “stood by Israel through thick and thin, through the good years and the bad,” but now realized “in truth, looking back over the past 20 years, that Israel has been slowly drifting away from world public opinion.”
“Under normal circumstances,” he said, “I would oppose the motion tonight; but such is my anger over Israel’s behavior in recent months that I will not oppose the motion. I have to say to the government of Israel that if they are losing people like me, they will be losing a lot of people.”
The breakdown of negotiations over a two-state solution, continued Israeli settlement building and the bloody conflict in Gaza all appear to have jolted Europe’s politicians, including Sweden’s new prime minister, Stefan Lofven, who this month pledged to recognize Palestine, the first time a major Western European nation had done so.
The conflict in Gaza also gave new impetus to efforts to pressure Israel through a campaign to boycott some goods made in West Bank settlements. And it helped fuel a surge in anti-Semitic episodes across Europe this year amid concerns that opposition to Israeli policies was allowing anti-Jewish bias to take root in the European mainstream.
Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said that moves like the British resolution and Sweden’s recent statement “make conflict resolution much more difficult” by sending Palestinians the message that “they can achieve things” outside negotiations. Israel, the United States and most of Europe have long insisted that the only path to Palestinian statehood is through bilateral negotiations.
Mr. Hirschson said “there’s no legal weight behind” the British resolution and that it “contravenes the policy of all three” British political parties, including Labour, but acknowledged that it “sours” relations with a longtime and staunch ally.
Continue reading the main story
“I don’t know how much of it is about Britain-Israel relations, or various different Israel-Europe relations, and how much of it is about Britain-Arab relations,” Mr. Hirschson said in a telephone interview. “Europe is in a way playing to the Arab world. Europe is in terrible economic condition, and they have to trade with the Arab world.”
Prime Minister David Cameron’s government opposes recognizing a Palestinian state at this point, and the parliamentary debate and vote are not likely to change British policy. But the issue is being debated in a growing number of capitals.
Romain Nadal, the French Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Monday that France “will have to recognize Palestine,” but he did not specify when the official recognition would take place.
The last conflict in Gaza “has been a triggering factor,” Mr. Nadal said. “It made us realize that we had to change methods.”
The European Union recently condemned Israel’s decision to expand settlements and on Sunday the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, pledged 450 million euros, or about $568 million, for the reconstruction of Gaza. The European Union has spent more than €1.3 billion in the Gaza Strip in the last decade.
Britain’s parliamentary debate comes amid pressure for a boycott of goods from Israeli companies operating in the occupied West Bank. One Labour Party lawmaker, Shabana Mahmood, recently joined protesters in lying down outside a supermarket in Birmingham selling such goods, forcing it to close temporarily.
“The problem is that we are drastically losing public opinion,” Avi Primor, the director of European studies at Tel Aviv University and a former Israeli ambassador to the European Union, told Israel Radio on Monday. “This has been going on for many years, and became particularly serious after the talks failed between us and the Palestinians after nine months of negotiations under Kerry, and even more so after Operation Protective Edge.”
That referred to failed efforts by Secretary of State John Kerry to revive the peace process and Israel’s military operations in Gaza in the summer.
Continue reading the main story
RECENT COMMENTS
archer717
false
No AIPAC in Britain? Apparently not. If there were, no MP would dare to introduce this resolution much less vote for it. It would be, as it...
nonmember observer state. The Palestinians leveraged their new status in April to join 15 international treaties and conventions, which helped bring about the breakdown of the latest round of peace talks.
Separately, 134 of 193 United Nations member states have extendeddiplomatic recognition to the State of Palestine.
Since the Aug. 26 cease-fire that halted the summer’s hostilities, the Palestinians have stepped up these diplomatic efforts, pursuing a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding a deadline for Israel’s occupation; threatening with renewed intensity to prosecute Israel in the International Criminal Court; and lobbying for recognition in European capitals.
In Britain, where elections loom next year, Israel’s policies have become politically sensitive. In 2011, Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, laid down official policy saying that Britain reserved the right “to recognize a Palestinian state at a moment of our choosing and when it can best help bring about peace.”
But over the summer, the leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Ed Miliband, said that Mr. Cameron was “wrong not to have opposed Israel’s incursion into Gaza” and rebuked him for his “silence on the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians caused by Israel’s military action.”
CONTINUE READING THE MAIN STORY267COMMENTS
And while pro-Palestinian sentiment is clearest within the Labour Party, frustration with Israeli policy has surfaced in all three main political parties.
In August, Sayeeda Warsi, a Conservative Party politician, quit her post as a Foreign Office minister over the issue, describing government policy on Gaza as “morally indefensible.”
Martin Linton, a former Labour Party lawmaker who is editor of Palestinian Briefing, an online publication, said that the view in Parliament had shifted significantly in favor of recognition in recent years and was catching up with public opinion.
Stephen Castle reported from London, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem. Maïa de la Baume contributed reporting from Paris.
A version of this article appears in print on October 14, 2014, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: A Symbolic Vote in Britain Recognizes a Palestinian State. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/world/europe/british-parliament-palestinian-state.html?_r=0
