Conference to recognise Palestinian state to weaken scope of its ambition, diplomats say
A planned conference in Saudi Arabia this month that supporters of Palestine had hoped would push western governments to recognise a Palestinian state has weakened its ambition and will instead hope to agree on steps towards recognition, diplomats have said.
The change to the aims of the conference, due to be held between 17 and 20 June, marks a retreat from an earlier vision that it would mark a joint declaration of recognition of Palestine as a state by a large group of countries, including permanent UN security council members France and the UK.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president and a co-sponsor of the event, has declared recognition of Palestine as 'a moral duty and political requirement', but French officials briefing their Israeli counterparts this week reassured them the conference will not be the moment for recognition.
That is now seen as a prize that will emerge from other measures, including a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the release of Israeli hostages, reform of the Palestinian Authority, economic reconstruction and a definitive end to Hamas's rule in Gaza.
France and Saudi Arabia have set up eight working parties to prepare the necessary ingredients for a two-state solution, and Macron is hosting a conference of civil society under the banner of the Paris Peace Forum immediately before the three-day conference.
The UK is overseeing the humanitarian working party and other working groups cover reconstruction, economic viability of a Palestinian state, promoting respect for international law, narratives for peace and 'peace day', an imagining of the benefits to both sides from a peaceful settlement.
Israel and the US have attended run-up meetings to the conference but have not spoken, prompting speculation they may boycott the event.
Israel has fought hard to prevent stateless Palestinians achieving self-determination. Polls show only a fifth of the Israel electorate favour a two-state solution and 56% of Jewish Israelis supported the 'transfer of Arab citizens of Israel to other countries'.
Israel has also approved plans to build a further 22 settlements in the West Bank – the biggest expansion in decades. Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, said it was 'a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state'.
Macron's initiative has been described as 'disastrous' by the Israel's ambassador to France, Joshua Zarka.
Recognition of a Palestinian state was previously seen as an outcome of a failed 1990s-era two-state plan. However, governments in Europe increasingly doubt Israel has any intention to ease its control over Palestinians and see recognition as a possible lever to force a change of thinking among Israeli officials.
Ireland, Spain and Norway recognised a Palestinian state last year. Macron has insisted he would only recognise a Palestinian state without Hamas – the same stance as the UK.
In an open letter to Macron, The Elders, a group of former senior UN diplomats, say recognition is 'an essential transformative step towards peace' that should be taken as a matter of principle, divorced from negotiations over the ultimate form of Palestinian statehood and how and when Hamas should be disarmed.
Anne-Claire Legendre, the president's adviser on the Middle East, has said the conference 'must mark a transformative milestone for the effective implementation of the two-state solution. We must move from words to deeds, and we must move from the end of the war in Gaza to the end of the conflict.'
She met Israeli officials this week to discuss the conference and Israel's often cloudy long-term vision for the region. She also met the Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Mustafa. Israeli newspapers reported the travelling French officials as saying: 'The recognition of a Palestinian state remains on the table, but not as a product of the conference. This will remain a bilateral subject between states.'
The British foreign secretary, David Lammy, who is expected to attend the conference, is under massive backbench pressure to do more to punish Israel and is, at minimum, being asked flesh out the conditions for the UK recognition of a Palestinian state.
Hamish Falconer, the Middle East minister, told MPs this week the UK thinking was evolving. 'One reason that the traditional position of the UK government has been that the recognition of a Palestinian state should come at the end, or during, a two-state solution process was the hope that we would move towards a two-state solution,' he said. 'Many minds have been changed because of the rhetoric of the Israeli government – the clear statements by so many that they are no longer committed to a two-state solution.'
But the British are looking for firm undertakings at the conference on the future government of Palestine, including the exclusion of Hamas from any future governance of Gaza, which is something Hamas itself has appeared to accept in the various plans drawn up by Arab states.
A growing number of Conservative MPs have broken with their frontbench on the issue and now back recognition, including the former attorney general Sir Jeremy Wright.
France hopes that a group of western states recognising a Palestinian state could be counter-balanced by Muslim states normalising relations with Israel.
However, Saudi recognition of Israel seems impossible. The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, the other co-host, has asserted repeatedly that Israel is committing a genocide, a view that is shared widely by Saudi public opinion.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
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Jaber Dabbaseh sits upon a pile of dust-strewn rubble. 'We feel oppressed, let down by a world that claims to be humane, while it does nothing,' the father-of-five says. The ruins once formed his family home in Khalet al-Daba'a in the West Bank, before his village was almost entirely demolished by Israeli bulldozers. A crippling 2025 for Palestinians in the West Bank has seen 14 children among 80 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the north of the territory alone. In late May came a hammer blow when Israel announced that 22 new settlements had been approved. Far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich warned Israel would 'not stop until the entire area receives its full legal status and becomes an inseparable part of the State of Israel,' a lucid illustration of the aggressive pro-settlement policies of Benjamin Netanyahu's government. On Thursday 5 June Palestinians marked Naksa Day, a commemoration of the forced displacement of around 300,000 Palestinians during the June 1967 war. Nearly six decades on, demoralised West Bank residents tell The Independent that the current situation is worse than ever. 'Their future is lost and we cannot provide for them, even a little,' says Dabbaseh, lamenting the life awaiting his five boys. 'The situation is very, very tragic.' Dabbaseh is one of the residents of Khalet al-Daba'a that have remained on the land, living in tents and residential caves since Israeli machinery razed it to the ground on 5 May. The IDF says the village is 'built illegally within a military firing zone' and that Palestinians live there illegally. This is disputed by the UN, EU, and rights organisations who say the forced expulsion of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta is illegal. 'Israel must immediately halt illegal practices leading to the forced displacement of Palestinians, including attacks on residential areas, destruction of property and infrastructure, pervasive access and movement restrictions imposed on Palestinians,' Amnesty International said on Thursday in a statement marking Naksa Day, as it accused Israel of presiding over a 'ruthless system of apartheid'. Since Khalet al-Daba'a's destruction, settlers have roamed the remnants of the village daily, grazing their sheep and vandalising remaining structures in the hope of pushing Palestinians away from the land, residents say. Footage shows settlers stood among the wreckage of Khalet al-Daba'a as three soldiers watch on, hands in pockets, relaxed and chatty. 'Our children are struggling to reach school and live in anxiety and fear. We cannot protect them from the settlers. We have no clinics, no schools, no recreational facilities for children,' Dabbaseh says. Nine houses, ten water tanks, four animal shelters, a community centre and most of the village's solar panels in the village were flattened by the army of bulldozers in less than two hours, according to activists. Residents watched on helplessly from a nearby hilltop, witnessing the stark transformation of their small village into a bleak landscape of lost livelihoods. Masafer Yatta, a collection of hamlets in the South Hebron Hills which the Israeli army declared a military firing zone in the 1980s, has faced some of the most brutal manifestations of Israeli occupation. After decades of legal wrangling, the High Court ruled in 2022 that there were no legal barriers to prevent the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes. Many Palestinians have repeatedly rebuilt their homes after they have been flattened. Others have moved into caves which have been renovated by locals and activists to make them habitable for families. 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Belfast Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Israel says its military has retrieved body of Thai hostage from Gaza
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Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Dawn French is criticised for her 'smug dismissal' of Israeli Hamas victims by woman who lost TWO relatives to terror gunmen
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'They marched Tsachi to Gaza covered in his child's blood. There he was held hostage for many months until at some point he was killed. His body was returned in February.' She added: 'To describe this so glibly adds to a deep well of pain.' Jewish Actress and playwright Tracy-Ann Oberman also said she was 'saddened' by the post. 'This mocking voice 'bad thing' of October 7 that Dawn (who I revere by the way) appears to be mocking involved the most horrific terrorist attack involving rape, sexual violence, burning alive child, mutilation and the taking of civilian hostages. 'Why would Dawn seem to deny that which has affected so many of us personally in the most painful way possible. 'I can mourn the horrors of the war in Gaza whilst also remembering the horrors of what started it. Is this how most of our industry feels now – Oct 7 was a 'little thing'? NO!' Reacting to those who accused her of diminishing the horrors of October 7, French posted on X and said: 'I do not say 'a little thing' . In NO WAY do I support the atrocities of Oct 7th. 'Of course not. Appalling. Horrific. But starving innocent children is not the answer. NO is the answer to ALL of it Tracy.' It comes as the Hamas-led health ministry said at least 95 Palestinians have been killed over the past 24 hours. Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces have killed at least six people in a shooting incident near a US-backed aid distribution centre in the territory's south. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that at around 7:00 am (0400 GMT), 'six people were killed and several others wounded by the forces of the Israeli occupation near the Al-Alam roundabout' in southern Gaza's Rafah area. Gazans have massed at Al-Alam almost daily since late May to collect humanitarian aid at a centre about one kilometre (0.6 miles) away, operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Actress and playwright Tracy-Ann Oberman said she was 'saddened' by the post Samir Abu Hadid, who was witnessed the shooting, said thousands of people had gathered near the roundabout. 'As soon as some people tried to advance towards the aid centre, the Israeli occupation forces opened fire from armoured vehicles stationed near the centre, firing into the air and then at civilians,' Abu Hadid said. The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident, the latest deadly fire near the Al-Alam aid point. The GHF began operations in late May as Israel partially eased a more than two-month blockade on the Gaza Strip. The United Nations, which has refused to cooperate with the GHF over neutrality concerns, has warned that Gaza's entire population of more than two million people was at risk of starvation. In the territory's north early Saturday, Bassal said seven people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a house near Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz also said today that the IDF had recovered the body of a Thai hostage taken on October 7. Nattapong Pinta's body was held by a Palestinian militant group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified. Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza. Israel's military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week. Israel has been waging a military campaign in Gaza since Hamas' incursion on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. At least 20 of the remaining 55 hostages still held by Hamas are thought to be alive. According to official Hamas figures, at least 54,772 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war. The Israeli military issued an evacuation order on Friday for residents of parts of Gaza City ahead of an attack that 'will strike all areas from which rockets are launched'. Israel has recently stepped up its campaign in Gaza in what it says is a renewed push to defeat Hamas amid growing international calls for a negotiated ceasefire.
