Israel’s prime minister has rejected a French peace initiative to break the impasse in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
In a short statement issued a few hours before the start of the second Passover holiday in Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu’s office insisted formally that it saw no benefit to a proposed French peace conference mooted for later this year. The announcement comes ahead of a summit of foreign ministers at the end of May in Paris where participants had been expected to try and hammer out a “political horizon” to bring the two sides together later in the summer.
“Israel adheres to its position that the best way to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is direct, bilateral negotiations,” the statement read. “Israel is ready to begin them immediately without preconditions. Any other diplomatic initiative distances the Palestinians from direct negotiations.”
The long-discussed French initiative for a peace conference had solidified in recent weeks against the background of over six months of deadly violence between the two sides. The announcement of the summit earlier in April came as the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, indicated he would put on hold plans to seek a UN security council resolution condemning continued Israeli settlement-building in the occupied Palestinian territories while the French initiative played out.
Neither Israel nor the Palestinians were to be invited to the summit on 30 May, which is expected to include some 30 countries and international organisations – including the “Quartet” of the UN, the EU, Russia and the US – though they would be expected to attended the peace conference slated for later in the summer.
The latest round of peace talks between the two sides broke down in April 2014 ahead of the Gaza conflict that year, in a period that has been marked by a sharp increase in instability and violence. Netanyahu’s rejection of the French proposal comes after reports that he was scathing about the planned summit asking what the point of it was.
Announcing the May summit, Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French foreign minister, insisted on the urgency of breathing new life into the moribund peace process.
“The two sides are further apart than ever,” said Ayrault last week. “There is no other solution to the conflict than establishing two states – one Israeli and the other Palestinian – living side by side in peace and safety with Jerusalem as a shared capital. We cannot do nothing. We have to act before it’s too late.”
The planned French peace conference had emerged at a time when the US administration had scotched hopes of any progress over peace negotiations while Barack Obama was still in office.
