Round table “European Policy in Palestine“

Round table “European Policy in Palestine“

In the course of their visit to the Middle East, a delegation of high-ranking members of the Party of European Socialists (PES) met with three Palestinian intellectuals at a round table dinner organized by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in East Jerusalem.
The round table dinner in the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem on 26 November gave the European politicians the opportunity to discuss both the stalling peace process and inner-Palestinian developments with the representatives of Palestinian civil society.

On the Palestinian side, Dr. Mahdi Abdul Hadi, Dr. Rami Nasrallah and Dr. Numan Kanafani attended the round table to share their views with the European social democrats. They showed great interest in the questions and thought of the members of delegations, including Bert Koenders, former minister for development cooperation in the Netherlands and Espen Barth Eide, Deputy Foreign Minister of Norway.
Dr. Mahdi Abdul Hadi, founder and director of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA), opened the exchange of ideas by elaborating on the relevant internal and external influences on current Palestinian policy making. He pointed at the danger of a loss of credibility for EU in case Europe continued its financial support for the Palestinian Authority without increasing political pressure on the Israeli partners in the peace process. Additionally, Dr. Mahdi talked about political tensions within Israel, where the political right wing has claimed increasing success in recent times, thereby diminishing the chances for an agreement with the Palestinians.
In his thoughts on the status of Jerusalem, Dr. Rami Nasrallah, director of the International Peace and Cooperation Center (IPCC), took on these observations and further elaborated on the symbolic character of the city of Jerusalem, which right wing forces among both Israelis and Palestinians increasingly use to sharpen their profile.
While both parts of Jerusalem – the Eastern, predominantly Arab part as well as the Western, Jewish part – face growing poverty, radical religious forces on both sides gain greater influence. Especially in the Eastern part, moderate parties are restricted in their means of influence due to the special status of Jerusalem before the law. The room for maneuver for Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is minute.
Fayyad’s policy of building institutions as a pragmatic way towards establishing an independent Palestine was the focal point of the contribution of Dr. Numan Kanafani, former director of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute MAS. While Prime Minister Fayyad’s effective program of state-building is highly valued by the EU, Fayyad remains far from reaching his goal of furthering the Palestinian’s quest of a state sovereign and independent from Israel. Kanafani underlined that financial support for Fayyad’s institution building must go in pair with political support for the Palestinian positions in the peace process with Israel.
The three contributions encouraged a lively debate focusing on the possibilities of the EU to effectively support Palestinian interests – a debate, which opened new perspectives for both sides.