By Josep Borrell Fontelles, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission
Thirty years ago, on 13 September 1993, Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin shook hands to seal the "Oslo Accords," which were supposed to lead to a permanent settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within five years. I remember feeling at that time the hope of finally seeing an end to the already decades-long Arab-Israeli-Palestinian tragedy. In 2023, what is left? There is neither peace nor a peace process. Hope has turned into resentment and despair, and this anniversary went virtually unnoticed.
On the ground, the conflict is heating up once again. This year already saw more than 200 Palestinian and 35 Israeli fatalities. Terrorist attacks, both by Palestinian militants against Israelis and by Israeli settlers against Palestinians are back at record levels.
Israel continues to expand settlements in the West Bank: at the time of the Oslo Accords, there were 280,000 settlers; today there are more than 700,000. Settler violence, the separation barrier, demolitions, and other measures are gradually pushing the Palestinian population off their land in many areas of the West Bank, while the humanitarian disaster in Gaza continues unabated, with no end in sight.
The continued violation of UN Security Council resolutions and of some of the most fundamental principles of international law is eroding trust in a rules-based international order, not just in the region but across the globe.
For years now, we, the EU and the international community, have been defending a Two-State Solution with the State of Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous, sovereign State of Palestine, living side by side in peace and security with Jerusalem as the capital of both states.
Because of Israel’s fait accompli policy, this solution may seem less and less viable on the ground.
On 18 September, at the United Nations in New York, we jointly launched the ‘Peace Day Effort’. We intend to ‘reverse engineer’ the peace, putting together a “Peace Supporting Package”, which will maximise benefits for the Palestinians and Israelis if they are able to reach a peace agreement. This initiative builds on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative and the 2013 EU “package of political, security and economic support”
While our Israeli and Palestinian friends are not yet negotiating peace, we have embarked on this journey to help keep the Two-State Solution alive, hoping that, together, we can bring it within closer reach. As remote as peace in the Middle East may appear today, echoing the words of Nelson Mandela that ‘‘it always seems impossible until it’s done”, we will keep trying.
For the sake of the legitimate rights of Palestinians, sustainable long-term security for Israelis, peace and development in the region, and the credibility of the international rules-based order, the world cannot afford the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be forgotten.