“Israeli suprematism or Palestinian extremism cannot lead to a solution, because the solution cannot come from a military struggle, there is no solution with weapons. The only solution can only come from diplomacy, the end of the illegal occupation, the end of the murder of innocents, the end of impunity, all of this has to end, but not end just because we ask for it. It will stop when the international community is ready to take coercive measures.” With these words, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, once again asked the international community this Sunday to overcome divisions and the lack of consensus and act to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza. He did so at the concluding ceremony of the civil society conference against polarization as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, organized by the European Mediterranean Institute (IEMED) this weekend in Barcelona.
In his speech at the forum that brought together 200 participants from 30 countries under the motto “Recovering our shared humanity,” Borrell reiterated that “behaviors change by persuasion or obligation.” “If the international community is not ready to impose limitations on all actors, the war will continue. The only way to end the war and give security to the people is to recognize that they have to share that land. They have been fighting for the same land for a century, and they have good reason to say ‘it is my land’. But either they share that land or if they don’t, one town will kill the other or drive them out. And this is what we have to avoid,” said the high representative, defending the two-state solution to end a conflict that threatens to spread to the entire region. “If someone says they don’t want the two-state solution, then they have a moral obligation to say what solution they propose. They don’t say it, but in practice, they are implementing another one, to which they don’t give any name,” he added.
“The world seems incapable of stopping this catastrophe, the destruction, the massive murders of civilians, in Gaza, and now in Lebanon,” said Borrell, who recalled that Gaza is “the most pressing humanitarian crisis since the Second War.” World”. “Why isn’t there a ceasefire? Because we do not agree on the measures necessary to reach a ceasefire. Because when we move from words to actions, divisions begin,” he repeated.
Against dehumanization
“We have to ask ourselves when we lost the shared sense of humanity,” said the high representative, reflecting on the central theme of the conference. “What happened to the Jews in World War II does not justify what is happening to the Palestinians. “Nothing that happened before October 7 can justify massacres and the kidnapping of civilians, and nothing can justify the annihilation of Gaza and its people,” he added. “To avoid brutality, we must first avoid dehumanization.”
The president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, also spoke at the concluding ceremony of the forum, accompanied by the Minister for the European Union and Foreign Action, Jaume Duch. Illa recalled that we are facing “the worst situation since the Hamas attack and the Israeli offensive in Gaza” and that both his Government and the Catalan Parliament will work to support the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, “condemning all attacks of violence and requesting an immediate ceasefire.”
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, in his speech at the opening event of the conference this Saturday, had called for an end to the “cycle of violence that engulfs the Middle East” and had defended the decision of the Government to recognize Palestine as a State and the “need, more than ever, to respect international law.”
This Monday Albares receives the representatives of the more than 40 countries and institutions participating in the Regional Forum of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), which will also focus on the situation in the Middle East. A meeting co-chaired by Borrell himself and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of Jordan, Ayman Safadi.
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