EU: Israel as a Jewish state would have to ensure equality (Roundup)

Oct 12, 2010, 16:49 GMT

Brussels - Israel will have to guarantee the equality of all citizens regardless of religion, even if Palestinians recognize it as a Jewish state, a European Union spokeswoman said Tuesday.

On Monday, Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu said he would be willing to extend a freeze on West Bank settlement building if Palestinians recognized Israel as a Jewish state.

The comment is controversial because some 20 per cent of Israel's population is non-Jewish. In particular, Arab citizens of Israel, whether Muslim or Christian, are unfavourable to Netanyahu's idea.

The EU's position is that 'The future states of Palestine and Israel will need to fully guarantee equality to all their citizens: basically, in the case of Israel, this means whether they are Jewish or not,' EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said.

Since taking office, Netanyahu has made recognition of Israel as a Jewish state a key issue for any future peace deal. Addressing parliament on Monday, he said that this, along with 'firm' security guarantees for Israel, were his two demands for a peace deal.

'If the Palestinian leadership will say unequivocally to its people that it recognizes Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, I will be ready to convene my government and request a further suspension (of settlement construction),' he said.

The Israeli leader's demand for recognition as a Jewish state is meant to ensure acknowledgement not only that Israel exists, but that it has a right to do so.

But Palestinians have rejected this demand in the past, and it is not mentioned in the 1993-94 Israeli-Palestinian Oslo interim peace deal, which laid the groundwork for the 16 years of failed Israeli- Palestinian peace talks.

President Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, noted the Palestinians had already recognized Israel's right to exist, without defining the state's religious character. It was up to Israel, not to the Palestinians, to define itself as it wished, he said.

Netanyahu made his comments following a wave of international criticism of his government's decision not to extend a freeze on settlement building on the West Bank.

The 10-month partial moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements expired on September 26, placing the recently-launched direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in limbo.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insists he will not resume negotiations unless and until the freeze is extended. On Monday Nabil Shaath, a member of the Palestinian negotiating team, said Palestinians wanted a complete halt to all Israeli settlement activities, and not just an extension of the freeze.

The EU has repeatedly labelled Israeli settlement construction illegal and demanded that it be stopped.

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