MANUEL Hassassian, the Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, has renewed his call on MPs to pass the resolution that will be before the House of Commons this Monday recognising the State of Palestine.
He told News Line: ‘There are three important points to make about this.
‘Firstly any recognition of the State of Palestine must be on the 1967 borders.
‘Secondly we don’t need the word “negotiations” because this would take us back to the status quo.
‘Number three, the combination of this is to break away from the old patterns of the frames of reference and negotiations.
‘There must be a Palestinian state with no strings attached either to negotiations or other parameters.
‘The recognition of the state of Palestine is considered an inalienable right of the Palestinian people and it is not up for negotiation.
‘The best model of recognition is the Swedish model based on sovereignty and based on the 1967 borders.’
Last week, Sweden became the first major EU country to announce that it intended officially to recognise the Palestinian state.
Monday’s resolution now has two amendments to it.
One already tabled adds that recognition should take place ‘on the conclusion of successful peace negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian authority’.
MPs consider that this will be well defeated. Labour leader Miliband has now rushed into the breach with another amendment, to try to stem the fury of the US that the UK is about to follow Sweden into recognising Palestine.
Miliband is supporting a second ‘all-party’ amendment, sponsored by Labour’s Jack Straw and Tory Alan Duncan that will add to the resolution the words: ‘as a contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution.’
Miliband will oppose the resolution without the second amendment.
The Palestinian ambasssador has called for both amendments to be defeated If the second amendment is carried it will mean no Palestinian state and signal another decade of delaying negotiations by Israel.
The resolution, due to be debated on Monday, also has the support of most Liberal Democrat MPs and a number of Tory backbenchers who have so far been given a free vote on the issue. Government ministers are expected to abstain.
The motion has been proposed by the Labour MP Grahame Morris who said he felt it was ‘time to shout out loud that this should be done.’
He added: ‘Not only is statehood the inalienable right of the Palestinian people, but recognising Palestine will breathe new life into a peace process that is at an impasse.’
