Sverige har som formannsland i EU laget et utkast som anerkjenner Øst-Jerusalem som hovedstad i en «levedyktig og sammenhengende» palestinsk stat. Sverige antyder også at EU kan komme til å anerkjenne en stat som palestinerne erklærer ensidig.

Israel har reagert meget sterkt på utkastet og mener EU dermed diskvalifiserer seg som uavhengig tredjepart.

EU members have long envisaged Arab East Jerusalem as the capital and have never recognised Israel’s claim of sovereignty over it. However, the Swedish draft would commit the EU for the first time to the inclusion of East Jerusalem as the capital of a «viable and contiguous» Palestinian state. The draft also urges Israel to allow the reopening of Palestinian Authority institutions in East Jerusalem.

The Swedish document, leaked to the Israeli daily Haaretz, goes out of its way to praise the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s two-year plan for the preparation of a Palestinian state, and commits the EU «at an appropriate time to recognise a Palestinian state». Publicly, Mr Fayyad has only said he favours an eventual UN call for a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders. But some officials have suggested that this could then form the basis for a unilateral declaration of a state – on the model of Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948.

Skulle EUs ministerråd slutte seg til det svenske forslaget vil det bety økt press på Israel.

Den britiske regjering vedtar idag regler som skjerper kravene om merking av varerer fra Vestbredden.

European discontent over Israeli settlements will be further demonstrated today when the UK’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is expected to announce a new labelling regime for goods from Israeli producers in the West Bank. Labels will need to identify the goods as coming from the settlements, rather than using generic terms like «the West Bank».

EU Palestine move enrages Israelis