STA, March 12, 2018 – Israeli Ambassador Eyal Sela told the STA before arguing in Slovenia's parliament against a unilateral recognition of Palestine that the Palestinians getting a state without talks would not help the peace efforts. It would also be seen as Slovenia taking the Palestinian side and would prevent Slovenian-Israeli relations from advancing.
Sela, who is hosted by the parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee along with Palestinian Ambassador Salah Abdel Shafi, said his main message would be that in Israel's view, "a unilateral recognition of the Palestinian state without direct negotiations between us and the Palestinians is a mistake".
"Every context of self-determination is different. The context of self-determination and independence of Slovenia might be different than the one of Montenegro, or of Timor, Kurdistan ... or of Palestine," said the ambassador, who is covering Slovenia from Israel and has paid ten visits to Slovenia since he took over in December 2016.
"In our case what everyone wants is the end of the conflict and not its continuation in different forms," the ambassador said as Slovenian politics seems very close to following through with the long-announced recognition of Palestine.
The easiest path to ending the conflict is via negotiations, Sela said, explaining Israel would be willing to concede more in some aspects if it got more in return security-wise.
"We'd for instance like to have in the future joint checks of trucks that will go to this future state, to make sure nobody is smuggling weapons etc. like Iran is for example doing now in Lebanon and Syria. We need to agree on all this and it's very complex, this is why I'm saying the context is different."
Asked what would change if Slovenia joined the list of over 130 countries that have recognised Palestine, the ambassador said only one of these countries was "what we call a like-minded, democratic, open western society".
"Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela will vote for everything they are asked to. We know we will automatically lose. You are different. A democracy, like-minded, we share the same values of human rights etc. So this is why we put our emphasis here."
He argued that in principle "everyone is in favour of recognition, but they are analysing it".
"The Portuguese, French or Spanish parliament for instance said that 'we will recognise Palestine but as a result of a negotiation with Israel'. We are also not against Palestinian statehood, but the question is when and how."
Asked how he felt about the Slovenian government saying more or less openly that it would be morally fair to recognise Palestine but problematic in terms of realpolitik, of the political and economic consequences for Slovenia, Sela said "this is basically a question for your government".
"Look. The main repercussion that I'm afraid of is the Palestinians not being ready to negotiate about things like security if they get a state without negotiations ... You think this is good for the peace process, I think it is bad, because I know what was happening until now."
"Instead of entering serious negotiations, they would now be able to go back to their people and present themselves as heroes and say: 'Every European country is accepting Palestine as a state, why should we negotiate with Israel?'" Sela said, arguing that Palestinian Ambassador Salah Abdel Shafi had taken this position explicitly.
"As I see it, living there, I don't think this will bring us a peaceful solution. People here, I'm not sure that they understand it that much."
Asked about the impact a Slovenian recognition of Palestine would have on Slovenian-Israeli economic and political relations, he said it would be "a setback" in what had been very good relations.
"They might be affected. I don't want to go into the details of how," he said, explaining they might "deteriorate in some aspects, but they will not advance for sure, while we want to in fact have closer relations".
The ambassador said that a Slovenian decision to unilaterally recognise Palestine would be "interpreted by Israel as Slovenia taking the Palestinian side" and in this case "it will not have any role in the peace process, not any task, any activity" apart from humanitarian.
Sela rejected the view that this logic could also be applied in the case of the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
"It is not a correct comparison," he said, arguing "the US is still making a lot of effort to bring us together".
The ambassador argued that the Trump declaration actually "brings no change to the situation so far, since the places in Jerusalem, you might call them west Jerusalem, are under Israeli sovereignty, which everybody knows" and are home to the country's main institutions.
"For me it is not enough. I would like him to say that all Jerusalem is Israeli territory, but he didn't."
As for the chance of negotiations being revived, Sela is hopeful, but he suggested Palestinian representatives might be afraid of being punished by their voters for getting less than 100% in complex negotiations that will require compromises.
A compromise solution means that everyone is happy and unhappy at the same time, Sela however fears that such a result is not possible "in the Palestinian society now".
"It is not only about state or not state. There are other dimensions - the issue of security, refugees, Jerusalem, relations in other Arab countries etc."
The position of the current Israeli government is "two states for two people", meaning the Palestinians need to accept Israel as a Jewish state and that there cannot be any future claims.
"It for instance means that the issue of the refugees [of the 1948 war] is not being solved in Israel."
"Because of the complexity and security reasons we will also ask, and it will not be easy, that some components of statehood be a little bit different. We will for instance ask that this state has no military, no army," he said, pointing to the examples of Costa Rica, Malta, Andorra.
"As the prime minister said: They will have all the rights, without the rights to kill us in the future," Sela said.
