The vote last week by a Belgian parliament committee of a motion of resolution to recognize a ‘’State of Palestine’’ is ‘’not a useful step’’, said Israel’s ambassador to Belgium, Emmanuel Nahshon.
The foreign affairs committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the parliament, voted a motion for resolution calling on the Belgian government to recognize a ‘’State of Palestine.” The motion was presented by a Socialist MP and co-signed by the Greens, the French-speaking Christian Democrats and the far left. It was adopted by a small majority of 8 votes to 7. The liberals, the Flemish Christian Democrats, the Flemish nationalist NV-An, the far right Vlaams Belang opposed the motion.
’’The only way to achieve the creation of a Palestinian state is through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Not only it does help nothing on the ground but in addition it risks creating among the Palestinians an illusory feeling of being able to obtain by means of international recognition what they cannot or do not want to obtain by negotiation,” Nahshon said in an interview with Belgian tv channel LN24.
He said it would be much more useful if parliamentarians would encourage the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table they left over 10 years ago.
“It would contribute much more to the peace process,” the ambassador added.
The resolution must now be examined soon in the plenary of the House of Representatives.
Emmanuel Nahshon admits that this resolution risks complicating relations between Belgium and Israel.