An international conference meant to resurrect the idea of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict will take place from June 17 to 20 at the United Nations headquarters in New York, a UN spokeswoman said Friday.
The conference stems from a resolution approved in December by the UN General Assembly, and it will be co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia. A diplomat in Paris close to preparations for the conference said it should pave the way for more countries to recognize a full-blown Palestinian state.
Nearly 150 countries recognize the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority as the State of Palestine, which has observer status at the United Nations but is not a full member as the UN Security Council has not voted to admit it.
In May 2024, Ireland, Norway and Spain took the step of recognizing a Palestinian state, infuriating Israel. Other European governments, including France, have not.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in April that Paris could recognize a Palestinian state in the coming months, possibly at the June conference. The French president’s statement drew a furious response from Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it a “huge prize for terror.”
Macron said at the time that he wished to organize the New York conference to encourage not just recognition of a Palestinian state, “but also a recognition of Israel from states that currently do not.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) greets French President Emmanuel Macron before a meeting in Jerusalem on October 24, 2023. (Christophe Ena/Pool/AFP)
The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalized relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords, signed in 2020 during US President Donald Trump’s first term. However, many Arab countries have yet to join the agreement, including Saudi Arabia and Israeli neighbors Syria and Lebanon, though Trump has recently indicated that Syria and Saudi Arabia could join the Accords in due course.
Normalization of Saudi-Israeli ties — a longstanding goal of US foreign policy –had seemed just around the corner in the weeks before the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, with two Israeli ministers making unprecedented state visits to the desert kingdom. However, the prospect of normalization melted away as anti-Israel sentiment in the Arab world reached new heights amid the war in Gaza, which was sparked by the onslaught.
Riyadh has since conditioned normalization on a pathway to Palestinian statehood, which Netanyahu’s government firmly opposes. Several of his ministers have supported calls to annex the West Bank, which Israel captured in the Six Day War of June 1967, and has been earmarked by the UN for a future Palestinian state.
The government has also accused the Palestinian Authority of inciting to terrorism in its school system and through the payment of stipends to Palestinian imprisoned by Israel.
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