Premier discusses political developments with European Parliament

Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah met in Ramallah on Wednesday with visiting members of the European Parliament’s (EP) delegation for relations with Palestine and briefed them on the latest political developments.

Hamdallah welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for the Palestinian cause and their efforts to strengthen partnership between Palestine and the European Union.

He urged the delegation to press members of the European Union to recognize the state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital as a step toward salvaging the two-state solution in light of Israeli efforts to destroy it through its settlement expansion, confiscation of West Bank land and by demolishing Khan al-Ahmar and displacing its Palestinian residents to build an all-Jewish settlement on their land, which would kill the idea of a contiguous Palestinian state.

Hamdallah said President Mahmoud Abbas is going to renew his call for holding an international peace conference under international auspices to end the Israeli occupation and save the two-state solution in light of the stalemate in the peace process, particularly in the aftermath of the decisions by the administration of US President Donald Trump aimed at harming Palestinian rights and which come as a collective punishment for the Palestinians.

Foreign Minister Riyad Malki had also met at his Ramallah office with the EP delegation and briefed them on the latest political developments in Palestine and the region.

The six-person EP delegation arrived in the West Bank on Tuesday and started its work in East Jerusalem and other parts of the occupied West Bank. It was set to visit Gaza on Thursday but was denied an entry permit from Israel.

A press release by the EP delegation said that it had formally requested clearance from Israel to enter the Gaza Strip as part of a three-day mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, but its request was denied.

“The purpose of the visit is to monitor the humanitarian situation caused by a decade of blockade, assess the destruction in the area following the armed conflicts, evaluate reconstruction efforts and visit a number of development projects funded by the European Union. This includes a newly constructed desalination plant providing fresh water to 75.000 people,” said the EP press release.

Israel has repeatedly denied the delegation access to visit the Strip since 2011.