29 Novembre 2012
Italy has decided to vote in favour of the draft resolution granting Palestine the status of Non-Member State Permanent Observer to the United Nations General Assembly, a vote that will take place later today. This decision is an integral part of the Italian Government’s commitment to revive the peace process with the objective of having two States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace, security, and mutual recognition. To this end, the Government and the Prime Minister in particular have striven to renew dialogue and negotiation, increasing meetings with the parties involved in the Middle East conflict and getting confirmation of their intention to resume peace negotiations and achieve the objective of two States.
In the past year, the Government has further consolidated the already excellent relationship with Israel, to where the Italian Prime Minister has travelled twice in the last months. After going to Israel in April, on the occasion of his first voyage in the Middle East, Prime Minister Monti returned to Israel on the 25th of October, with several Government Ministers, for the Third Inter-Governmental Summit, during which several bilateral cooperation agreements have been signed. Reasserting the central role the peace process plays for Italy and the EU, Prime Minister Monti expressed the conviction that the final arrangement will be based on the principle of two States for two peoples: a Palestinian State for the Palestinian people; and the State of Israel as a Jewish State, recognizing its legitimate aspiration as homeland for the Jewish people.
The Prime Minister has also expressed support for efforts of the Palestinian National Authority and for the moderate leadership of President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad to resume peace negotiations; against any form of violence and in favour of dialogue as the only path towards a long-term solution of the conflict. The Italian decision to support the draft resolution, which raises Palestine’s status to a Non-Member State Permanent Observer at the United Nations, is an explicit encouragement to continue in the direction of dialogue and against any extremism. The birth of a State of Palestine with full UN membership can occur only and exclusively through negotiation and direct agreement between the parties.
Prime Minister Monti called President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu to explain the Italian decision.
In the same way as other European partners, whilst supporting the draft resolution, Italy has asked President Abbas to accept the immediate resumption of peace negotiations without preconditions and to refrain from using today’s vote in the General Assembly to obtain access to other UN Specialized Agencies, to appeal to the International Criminal Court or for any other retrospective use. To Netanyahu, Monti assured that this decision does not in any way affect the longstanding and strong friendship with Israel and expressed Italy’s firm commitment to avoid any misuse to attempt unfairly to bring Israel – which has the right to guarantee its own security – before the International Criminal Court.
