JERUSALEM: Israeli lawmakers voted on Wednesday to back Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of any “unilateral” recognition of a Palestinian state, as international calls to revive Palestinian statehood talks grow.
The symbolic declaration, which was issued amid the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, also received support from members of the opposition, with 99 of 120 lawmakers voting in favor, a Knesset spokesman said.
Israel’s position says that any lasting agreement with the Palestinians must be reached through direct negotiations between the parties and not by international diktat.
“The Knesset met overwhelmingly against the attempt to impose on us the establishment of a Palestinian state, which would not only not bring peace, but would also threaten the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
The vote drew condemnation from the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, which accused Israel of holding the rights of the Palestinian people hostage by forcibly occupying territory where Palestinians are trying to establish a state.
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“The ministry reaffirms that Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations and its recognition by other nations does not require authorization from Netanyahu,” it said in a statement.
Since the Oslo Interim Accords were signed in the early 1990s, little progress has been made towards achieving a two-state solution – a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza alongside Israel.
Among the obstacles to Palestinian statehood is the expansion of Israeli settlements in territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Most countries consider the settlements, which separate Palestinian communities from each other in many areas, to be a violation of international law.
The two-state solution has long been the main Western policy in the region. Since the Gaza war broke out in October, the United States has sought to push for steps to create a Palestinian state as part of a broader Middle East deal that would include Saudi Arabia and other Arab states officially normalizing relations with Israel.
