International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, 8 Dec 2009

The European Union’s council of foreign ministers on Tuesday passed a watered-down version of a controversial resolution tabled last week by Sweden, deciding to call for negotiations that would result in Jerusalem becoming the "capital of two stat--s" -- Israel and a future Palestinian state.

"If there is to be [peace] a way has to be found to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the capital of two states," the declaration read. The final version will now have to be approved by EU leaders at an end-of-year summit later this week.

Sweden had originally proposed a draft statement that would have only recognized east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Israeli diplomats lobbied hard to amend the document, insisting it should instead endorse the Netanyahu government’s new settlement freeze and strongly urge the Palestinians to return to peace talks.

The final version was not as bad as expected, but still had some problematic clauses from an Israeli standpoint. While calling the settlement freeze "a step in the right direction," the document also called for the establishment of a Palestinian state comprising the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem, and maintained that "the EU will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem."

This latter provision undermines Israel’s hopes to negotiate adjustments to the pre-1967 lines and retain some of the larger settlement blocs like Ariel and Ma’ale Adumim.

In an official response to the EU statement, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it "ignores the primary obstacle to achieving a resolution between Israel and the Palestinians: the Palestinian refusal to return to the negotiating table... Israel regrets that the EU has chosen to adopt a text that, although containing nothing new, does not contribute to the renewal of negotiations."

Jerusalem also welcomed the fact that "responsible and reasonable" EU states had managed to balance and improve the Swedish proposal. Israel also urged the EU to "consider Israel's security needs and [show] understanding that Israel's Jewish character must be preserved in any future agreement."

Meanwhile, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat was not as diplomatic in his response, saying he "completely rejects the decision of the EU to support the division of Jerusalem." He noted that the recent celebration of the 20th anniversary of the reunification of Berlin reminds us that "no divided city in the history of the world has functioned properly."

In other reactions, Palestinian Authority prime minister Salaam Fayyad welcomed the EU decision, describing it as an important step en route to Palestinian statehood.

Copyright © 2009 International Christian Embassy Jerusalem