Renowned Israeli authors Amos Oz, David Grossman, and A.B. Yehoshua have added their signatures to a petition calling on European parliaments to recognize a Palestinian state. In doing so, the three writers have joined some 800 additional Israeli signers of the petition including Nobel Prize Laureate Daniel Kahneman, former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg, former Minister of Education Yossi Sarid, and former Knesset Member Tamar Gozansky.
Author David Grossman speaking at a demonstration against this summer’s brutal Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip (Photo: Peace Now)
“Your initiative to recognize a Palestinian state will advance the prospects for peace, and encourage Israelis and Palestinians to reach a resolution of the conflict,” urges the petition which calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with “Israeli recognition of Palestine, and Palestinian recognition of Israel.” The document also decries the “political deadlock and ongoing occupation and settlement, which invariably leads to conflict with the Palestinians, and torpedoes any possibility of an agreement.”
Adding to a groundswell of support within the European Union, Belgian legislators from the ruling coalition are working on a nonbinding resolution to recognize a Palestinian state. On Sunday, December 7, a copy of the petition was sent to that country’s parliament, which according to local reports is likely to vote on the issue this week. The document has also been sent to the Danish Parliament, which is expected to hold its first discussion on the recognition of a Palestinian state this week. Plans are also being made to send a copy to lawmakers in the Irish parliament’s lower house, in anticipation of an upcoming vote there following October’s passing of motion in that body’s upper house which calls on the government to recognize a Palestinian state. On December 2, French lawmakers voted in favor of recognizing Palestine as a state, a symbolic move that will not immediately affect France’s diplomatic stance, but which demonstrates growing European impatience with Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian territories. While Sweden was the first western European country to recognize Palestine as a state, other European countries which previously had done so include Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta, Romania, Poland, and the Czech Republic. While the parliaments of the UK, Spain, and France have already voted for recognition of Palestinian statehood, the respective motions passed there were non-binding.
