Thank you, dear Hadja [Lahbib], and to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for hosting [us] in this magnificent palace.
I want to congratulate you for becoming [new] Commissioner for Crisis Management. You will be critical on supplying support to many people around the world, and in particular to the people in Gaza.
The life of many people will be pending on your capacity to deliver. In particular, the life of many people in the Middle East and Gaza, will be critically depending on your decisions and on your management skills.
It’s a great responsibility, my dear Hadja [Lahbib]. I congratulate you for that. I am sure that you will be very successful on that. Your premises will be less glamorous than this one, less beautiful, but maybe you will have a stronger capacity to influence for the good the people in need.
Belgium has been a proactive voice for peace since the 7th of October horrors, and over the last past months. I have to congratulate my colleague, Hadja [Lahbib, hitherto Minister of Foreign Affairs], because you have been always very proactive at the Foreign Affairs Council and [so has been] your Prime Minister [Alexander De Croo] at the European Union Council, asking for ceasefire and asking for the Two-State solution to be implemented.
To start with a positive approach, we have to welcome the ceasefire in Lebanon. Now, strict compliance is necessary in order to allow us to refocus the situation in Gaza and look for a ceasefire in Gaza.
At the beginning, it was ceasefire in both places. Then, it has been in one of them. It is not a definitive solution. But I am coming from Lebanon. At least tonight, no more people will go to the hospitals in Beirut. At least tonight, there will not be more bombing, and no more people will have to go to a hospital. I’m visited some of the hospitals, and I can tell you it is not something easy to see.
I am very pleased that the attendance today shows that there is an ambition for the Global Alliance [for the implementation of the Two-State Solution] to work. Thank you for being here.
Before we talk about the Two-State Solution, let me pause for a moment to reflect on the immensity of the suffering so close to all of us.
It is about 44,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza so far. The vast majority of them are innocent people, women and children. Innocent men also, but too many children. Tens of thousands of children. I told you, if you go to visit one hospital for children wounded in Gaza, you feel the need for peace.
And I want also to think about the Israeli killed, and the 100 hostages are still being held in captivity in Gaza. Once again, we have to start asking for their delivery, for them to be released.
We think also [about] the two million people. How many people live in Brussels? So, twice the population in Brussels, who have been living through the hell that Gaza has become in the last 40 months. Displaced from there to there, from the South to the North, from the North to the South, by playing ping pong with human beings.
Now, they do not have any place to go. No health care, no schools. Everything that makes society has been reduced to rubble.
I had a long discussion, and you will have a long talk with him, with humanitarian responsible of the United Nations in Jordan [Muhannad Hadi], who stayed with me a whole afternoon. It would be something that you need to do, dear Hadja [Lahbib], quickly. He went into detail about what is going on there. How not to see, how not to agree that the basic humanitarian laws are being violated systematically?
Then you will hear the United Nations responsible telling you everything that goes into Gaza is being looted. And if by accident police comes, they are shot.
Two million people are being pushed North-South, South-North. They lack everything.
And since Monday, a couple of days ago, United Nations has not been able to provide assistance because there is no more fuel, there is no more food, in order to keep these people alive.
We need to address the underlying conflict. For that we need a ceasefire, [this is the] first step.
The following step is to look for political solutions to the occupation.
This has always been my conviction and what we have been working [towards]. Peace has been a priority from the beginning of my mandate.
I have to say that I’m coming back home without a lot of success. The situation today is much worse than in the last five years.
During these years, we have built a strong relation with our peace-minded partners, which also laid the ground for this Global Alliance.
I want to thank Sven Koopmans, our [European Union] Special Representative for the Middle East peace process, who has been tirelessly working in order to make this happen.
You have been instrumental in order to build partnerships with a broad international coalition for peace.
We started our work at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2022.
Upon the suggestion of His Highness Prince Faisal Al-Saudi Arabia and the Arab League Secretary General, I hosted the first meeting to mark the 20th anniversary of the Arab Peace Initiative.
We decided to explore a new approach for a comprehensive regional peace, safeguarding the Two-State Solution as the basis principle – but to make it something more than a mantra that we repeat without doing anything about it.
One year later, at the UNGA week in September 2023, the three of us, joined by the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan, launched the Peace Day effort.
There were 50 countries and organizations among us. It was in September 2023.
Unhappily, [what] happened, happened, and everything went in a very bad situation.
In [trying to resolve] this, the Middle East conflict [has not become] easier. It has become more and more difficult.
What has changed is the growing awareness that it has to be resolved, that we cannot put that in a corner, saying, “okay, it will be solved. Okay, the Arabs’ agreement, the Abraham’s agreement will solve it. If the Arabs make peace with Israel, the Palestinians will follow.”
No, it will be a phenomenon of spillover.
And, “oh, the Middle East has never been so peaceful”, as Jack Sullivan said one day before the terrorist attack in Hamas.
Let’s look at reality in the face. The cost of no peace has become exorbitant. It has to be solved.
No other territorial dispute stirs emotions and fuels polarization across the globe – and in particular, inside our societies, inside European societies – as this conflict creates.
No international conflict causes as much human suffering as we see in Gaza today.
Well, maybe in Sudan, you can say that they are competing with Gaza, no? Hardly any conflict is undermining the foundations of the international order like the Middle East conflict does.
While ending this war must be our most urgent priority today, preparing the ground for peace is no less important – even if the parties are not ready.
One party at least is not ready for that. And I regret that this party is not sitting among us today.
But it does not mean that in Israel there are no people who want peace. Yes, there are.
I met with them in Cyprus this weekend. Yes, there are. There are Israeli people who want to build peace.
Israeli and Palestinians are not an exception on their will to live in peace. It is part of human nature. And those who claim almost otherwise, they have an anti-humanist and extremist agenda.
Our collective duty is to face them and to try to make them to work in order to make peace among us.
For that, there are five principles, that I mentioned many times.
First, to support the peace camp. We have to support the people who are working for peace. They are [doing it], and they need our support. We have to support the Arab Peace Initiative – that should be known by the Israeli people.
The Israeli people mostly believe that the Arabs don’t want peace. Yes, they want peace, and there is a peace initiative built by the Arabs. Let’s make this initiative be known.
In the same vein, Israeli activism for Palestinian rights should be spotlighted across the Arab world. There are Israeli people who risk [themselves], in order to support peace and support Palestinian people. To reach their rights, they risk penalties.
They risk to be isolated inside their society. This has to be known and recognised by the Arab world.
Second, we have to confront the spoilers. If there are the spoilers, we have to confront them. We have to identify the spoilers and sanction the spoilers. And doing that in a balanced way, understanding the mirror effect of radicalisation is essential for effective peace-making. Confront the spoilers.
Third: stick to the facts. People have to know what is happening. And people do not know what is happening. In Spain we say: “Ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente”; if your eyes do not see, your heart does not feel.
Well, many in European societies do not see because nobody shows what is happening. And in Israeli society, they do not see what is happening in Gaza because nobody shows it.
And then there are the algorithms, the system that makes you to face information in order to bias your view. And the algorithms, who work for war are much stronger than the ones who work for peace.
And this forum should address the great challenge of our time, which is the algorithm production of information that bias the understanding of the people.
The force to protect United Nations and international law. We have to protect United Nations. I went talking with the United Nations people in Gaza. They are still there, risking their lives.
And they are afraid that they can be the victims not only of the Israeli bombs, but the desperation of the people. To say, what are you doing there if you cannot help us? Incidents are growing and these people are risking their life. And the United Nations is being treated in the worst possible manner.
They talk about Secretary General of the United Nations [António Guterres] as the head of the snake. Mr Guterres is the head of the snake. So, it is supposed to be a kind of a snake which is fighting against Israel. You can imagine, this is not the case. But we have to protect international law and we have to protect United Nations workers.
And the last one, use our leverage. We have leverage, but we do not want to use it.
We can create positive incentive, and we can put in place coercive measures. As far as European Union is concerned, we have to take it by unanimity, and I know it will not happen.
But at least you have to put that on the stage. If you are not able to take measures which go beyond persuasion, we will not advance because persuasion has been proved not to be enough. How many times we have gone to Israel to try to stop what is going on, asking for it, begging. That is not enough.
Well, Hadja, this is a very good moment for encourage you. This is the last moment in which we will be sitting and working together. And I want to thank you because we have been always working in good cooperation.
And I am sure that my successor, Ms Kaja Kallas will understand how important it is to face the consequences of this conflict. And for that, this platform that we have created, this toolbox, this setting, this framework – call it whatever you want – will be very useful.
It is not easy to gather here as many people as you are, with goodwill, representing so many institutions and governments in order to work. Do not stop doing it. Please, do not stop. I hope you will push for it.
Thank you.
Link to the video (starting at 7:00): https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-264316