French Parliament Recognizes Palestinian State

CAIRO – French lawmakers voted in favor of recognizing Palestinian state on Tuesday, December 02, reflecting a growing European impatience with a stalled peace process.

The motion, proposed by the ruling Socialists and backed by left-wing parties and some conservatives, asks the government to "use the recognition of a Palestinian state with the aim of resolving the conflict definitively".

Echoing similar trend in Britain, Spain and Ireland, the votes received the backing of 339 lawmakers with 151 voting against.

The non-binding vote reflects a symbolic move that will not immediately affect France's diplomatic stance.

Paris has in the past already made known that it plans to recognize a Palestinian nation "when the time comes", arguing that a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict logically implies recognition of Palestine.

In an earlier interview with Agence France Presse (AFP), French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the UN Security Council was working on a resolution to relaunch and conclude peace talks.

"A deadline of two years is the one most often mentioned and the French government can agree with this figure," he said.

Fabius also said France was prepared to host international talks to drive the peace bid forward.

"An international conference could be organized. France is prepared to take the initiative on this. And in these talks, recognition [of the Palestinian state] would be an instrument… for the definitive resolution of the conflict," he said.

"If these efforts fail, if this last attempt at a negotiated settlement does not work, then France will have to do its duty and recognise the state of Palestine without delay and we are ready to do that," stressed Fabius, without fixing a deadline for such recognition.

In October, Sweden became the biggest Western European country to recognize Palestine, and parliaments in Spain, Britain and Ireland held votes in which they backed non-binding resolutions in favor of recognition.

While Palestine is not recognized as an official member state at the United Nations and other global bodies, it was upgraded to a “non-member observer state” in 2012, despite strong Israeli, American and British opposition.

Israel was created on May 15, 1948, on the rubbles of Palestine.

Later in the 1967 Middle East War, Israel occupied other Palestinian lands along with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Syria's Golan Heights.

Israel returned Sinai Peninsula to Egypt under the 1979 Camp David peace accords.

The Palestinians insist that Israel ceases all settlement activities in the occupied West Bank and Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) to return to the peace talks.

Source : http://www.onislam.net