50 former European leaders, foreign ministers condemn the Trump Plan for the Middle East.
Fifty former European leaders and foreign ministers signed an open letter expressing “grave concern” over US President Donald Trump’s plan for peace between Israel and Palestine.
The letter, published Thursday in The Guardian newspaper, criticized the plan, which allowed the Israeli annexation of the settlements and created a situation that he said amounted to “apartheid”.
“The plan contradicts the internationally agreed parameters of the Middle East peace process, relevant UN resolutions, including Security Council resolution 2334, and the most fundamental principles of international law. Instead of promoting peace, it risks feeding the conflict – at the expense of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians – with serious consequences for Jordan and the region,” it says.
“The Plan allows for the annexation of large and vital parts of the occupied Palestinian territory, legitimizes and encourages Israel’s illegal settlement activities. It recognizes the claims of only one party to Jerusalem and does not offer a just solution to the Palestinian refugee question. It provides for a future Palestinian “State” without control or sovereignty over its fragmented territory. The map presented in the plan proposes Palestinian enclaves under permanent Israeli military control, which is causing South African bantuaries to have icy associations”.
He described the plan as “the formalization of the current reality in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, where two peoples live side by side without equal rights”. Such an outcome has characteristics similar to apartheid, a term that we do not use easily”.
Among the signatories of the letter were former Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany Sigmar Gabriel, former UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry, former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, former NATO Secretaries-General Javier Solana and Willie Klas, former Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Karlsson, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Irish Prime Minister John Bruton, and others.