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#IsraelPalestine - 'The two-state solution cannot be substituted by endless technical and financial assistance' Mogherini

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The EU’s High Representative and Vice-President (HRVP) Federica Mogherini held a joint press conference with Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide, Foreign Minister of Norway, ahead of today’s (30 April) meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) – the body that serves as the principal policy-level coordination mechanism for development assistance to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

The HRVP said a two-state solution remains the only realistic way forward. The EU remains ready to help the parties to return to dialogue. The EU will remain the largest and most reliable donor with €300 million per year for the last 15 years. Mogherini said that this support will continue because the Palestinians have the right to live in dignity and because the EU knows that this money is an investment in security. Today the EU announced €22 million in additional humanitarian assistance. She said that a two-state solution cannot be substituted by endless technical and financial assistance, “it will simply not work.”

Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide, Foreign Minister of Norway, was in Brussels today (30 April) to chair the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) serves as the principal policy-level coordination mechanism for development assistance to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

Søreide says that the committee is deeply concerned about the severe financial crisis of the Palestinian Authority (PA), linked partly by the Israeli government’s decision to withhold 6% from revenues it collects on behalf of the PA. She said that the international community needed to recommit to rebuild the institutional and economic conditions for an independent Palestinian state.

The minister was particularly concerned about the grave situation in Gaza, in particular the need to build key infrastructure and lift the closure regime.

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She said the objective remained a negotiated two-state solution with a financially independent, democratic, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian state living with Israel in peace and security.

Søreide says the acute financial situation for Palestinian refugees benefiting from UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees support created in 1949) could lead to radical groups becomming operational in the refugee camps.

Background

The AHLC is chaired by Norway and co-sponsored by the EU and the US. In addition, the United Nations participates together with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The AHLC seeks to promote dialogue between donors, the Palestinian Authority and the government of Israel.

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