BRUSSELS — EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday criticized the “Israeli occupation authorities” for imposing punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority.
Speaking next to Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, Borrell listed the challenges facing the Ramallah-based Palestinian government, including “a dangerous socio-economic crisis, impact on the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza, closures imposed in the West Bank, and other punitive actions such as the announcement of the Israeli occupation authorities to cut all tax revenues that belong to you.”
Borrell added: “We, the European Union, we are the largest international donor of aid to the Palestinian people and a long-standing partner and supporter of the Palestinian state-building.”
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has deeply divided the European Union. While Borrell’s home country, Spain, took the lead last week in the latest push to support Palestinian statehood, Germany and France are among a majority of EU countries that have withheld such a step.
Nearly two-thirds of the EU’s 27 countries are not yet ready to do so.
Following the push by Spain, Ireland and Norway, the U.S. has criticized what it calls “unilateral recognition.” But Mustafa said it’s time for more European countries to be inspired by the three European governments.
“We are fully confident that the number of like-minded European countries shall follow suit and formally recognize the state of Palestine in the very near future,” Mustafa said alongside Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, who hosted him for a joint press conference at the Spanish permanent delegation to the EU in Brussels.
Mustafa also vowed to focus on a clear plan for the Palestinian Authority to improve its institutions in order to be in a position ready to govern Gaza. “We will be working on a very intensive reform program,” Mustafa said. “We are on the right track to make very good progress.”
Albares, for his part, said he would call on his EU counterparts to “be backing international law” and the rulings by the International Court of Justice, which last week ruled that Israel has to halt military operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Paula Andres Richart contributed to this report.
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