The Israeli Prime Minister believes that an agreement on Palestinian statehood can only be reached through direct negotiations between representatives of Israel and Palestine.
On Sunday, February 18, the Israeli government adopted a declaratory decision by which it officially opposes the “unilateral recognition” of a Palestinian state.
This is reported by Reuters.
The document put to a vote by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu states that an agreement on Palestinian statehood can only be achieved through direct negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian representatives.
At the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that the position to be formalized takes into account “recent discussions in the international community about a unilateral attempt to impose a Palestinian state on Israel.”
Efforts to implement a two-state solution – Israeli and Palestinian, consisting of the West Bank and Gaza Strip – were blocked in 2014.
United States President Joe Biden has been trying to push for a more forward-looking Middle East deal that would see Saudi Arabia and other Arab states establish normal relations with Israel, along with the creation of a Palestinian state.
However, the Israeli statement records that “Israel completely rejects international dictates regarding a permanent agreement with the Palestinians” and that such an agreement could be the result of direct negotiations between the parties “without preconditions.”
Unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state shortly after last year's October 7 Hamas attack, which the document called a “massacre,” would “give terrorism enormous, unprecedented rewards.”
Recall that earlier the chief diplomat of Saudi Arabia said that the kingdom will not normalize relations with Israel and will not contribute to the restoration of Gaza without a reliable path to a Palestinian state, which is unacceptable for the Israeli government.
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