Abbas Rejects Meeting With Israeli President as EU Calls for Renewed Peace Talks

On June 23^rd, 2016, Israeli President Reuben Rivlin and Chairman of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas went to Brussels to meet with the European Parliament about restarting peace talks. But while the two officials were in the same building, they did not meet face to face.

The head of the European Parliament Martin Schultz attempted to arrange a meeting between the two sides in order to at least achieve some deliberation. While President Rivlin expressed the desire to meet, Abbas refused.

“On a personal level I find it strange that President Mahmoud Abbas, my friend Abu Mazen, refused again and again to meet with Israeli leaders,” Rivlin said.

Palestinians claim that Abbas would not be opposed to meeting with his Israeli counterpart, but that since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds the real political power in Israel, meeting with Rivlin would only be symbolic. Abbas also added that even if he were to meet with Netanyahu, the hardline members of Netanyahu’s coalition would make reaching a peace deal that respected Palestinian independence effectively impossible. Abbas also sought to enlist the European Parliament’s assistance in the matter, claiming “Israel has turned our [West Bank and Gaza] home into an open-air prison.” The European Parliament re-affirmed their commitment to respecting both sides and working towards a peace deal.

Talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority have been halted since April 2014, when a nine-month series of talks fell apart after the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza, announced that they would form a unity government, an agreement which Israeli authorities say requires a re-evaluation of the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to peace.

But under pressure from the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in September that he was willing to “meet with him [Abbas] wherever and whenever.” Netanyahu also re-affirmed his commitment to a two-state solution with a demilitarized Palestinian state.

Those comments came in response to pressure by U.S President Barack Obama after Netanyahu, during his campaign in March 2015, made comments regarding a Palestinian state being impossible during his administration. Obama, after congratulating Netanyahu, told him that the U.S was “reconsidering its position towards Israel”.

Netanyahu re-affirmed his commitment to peace by claiming that he is open to deliberations with his Palestinian counterpart.

It would seem that this constant failure to agree on how to negotiate is reflective of both sides’ willingness to negotiate solely on their own terms. Specifically, Abbas does not want to agree to any peace deal unless Israel agrees to return to its pre-1967 borders, a policy which is in direct conflict with Israel’s settlements in the West Bank. Conversely, Netanyahu, while open to negotiations, is likely to not consider pulling out the Israeli settlements, especially given the recent appointment of Avigdor Lieberman, of the strongly pro-settlement Revisionist Zionist Israel Beiteinu party, as Secretary of Defense.

But Abbas’ attitude toward Israel in general is questionable. Abbas issued a false claim about Israelis before the EU parliament, a claim reminiscent of medieval anti-Semitic rhetoric: that Rabbis had ordered the poisoning of Palestinian wells.

As current circumstances make clear, despite EU efforts there is unlikely to be any substantial movement towards a peace agreement in the near future.