Brussels is witnessing meetings of European Union foreign ministers to discuss the aftermath of the war on Gaza, and on the sidelines there are meetings with their Arab counterparts, as well as with the Israeli Foreign Minister, who spoke about displacing the Palestinians to an artificial island.
Israeli Minister Yisrael Katz was quoted as saying during the meeting with his European counterparts on Monday, “We presented the idea of an artificial island that would be an alternative homeland for the Palestinians.”
The minister said that the island would be 5 kilometers from the coast of Gaza, and a port and airport could be established on it to be a commercial center similar to Singapore, as he put it.
He added that Israel will control what enters and exits the island and connects it to the mainland via two bridges.
Sources told Tel Aviv Tribune that some European ministers expressed their concern about this Israeli perception of displacing the Palestinians.
Many ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had spoken since the beginning of the war on Gaza about the displacement of Palestinians from the Strip, and one of them said that what we are witnessing now is the “Gaza Nakba.”
European criticism
Meanwhile, European Union foreign policy official Josep Borrell intends to present a plan to establish a Palestinian state, in light of Netanyahu and his ministers’ statements over the past few days rejecting the two-state solution.
At the same time, Borrell said that the way Israel is trying to destroy Hamas is wrong and will not succeed, as he put it.
For her part, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said – before attending the European ministerial meeting – that the two-state solution is the only solution to the ongoing conflict, as she put it.
She added, “All those who say they do not want to hear anything about such a solution have offered no alternative,” and also called for an urgent “humanitarian halt” to the war in Gaza.
On the other hand, the foreign ministers of Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the Secretary-General of the Arab League are participating in meetings in Brussels on the sidelines of the European Union foreign ministers’ meeting.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi denounced the Israeli government’s “extremist racist agenda” and said it defies the world by refusing to accept a two-state solution to end the conflict.
He added, in his statements to reporters, that “the only way out of this tragedy is the two-state solution… They are challenging the entire international community, and it is time for the world to take a stand.”