Paris summit provides "symbolic" support for Palestinian rights

The recently-concluded Paris international peace conference on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict provides "symbolic" and "moral" support to the Palestinian rights but it does not change the status quo, said Egyptian political experts.

On Sunday, diplomats from over 70 states gathered in the French capital city on Sunday, including about 40 foreign ministers and several renowned organizations, in an attempt to revive the stalemated Middle East peace process and push forward the two-state solution to put an end to the seven-decade conflict.

The final declaration urged both the Israelis and the Palestinians for commitment to the two-state solution, called for setting the pre-1967 war borders as basis for negotiations and warned both sides against any "unilateral steps that prejudge the outcomes of negotiations on final status issues."

"The conference is symbolically beneficial but it comes on borrowed time. It may bring more isolation and condemnation to Israel but it will not have strong influence on the ground," said Hassan Nafaa, a political science professor at Cairo University.

Held a few days before a new U.S. administration takes over the White House, the conference is not influential enough as it has not been attended by Israel, while the United States does not heavily support it, Nafaa said.

Paris peace summit came three weeks after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) endorsed in late December a resolution demanding immediate and complete halt of Israeli settlement activities on occupied Palestinian territories.

"The summit is just like the UNSC anti-settlement resolution, which was allowed to pass by U.S. abstention. The resolution symbolically and spiritually supports the Palestinian rights but it does not stop Israel from building settlements," the professor told Xinhua.

Israel, which rejects the summit in the first place, relies on U.S. President-elect Donald Trump who promised the country ultimate support and even vowed to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which France said would have "serious consequences."

Israel is blamed by the international community for the deadlock of the Middle East peace process due to its settlement expansion policy that is rejected even by its strongest ally the United States.

In early December, the Knesset, Israel's parliament, initially approved a couple of controversial pro-settlement bills that are meant to retroactively legalize about 4,000 settlement homes as well as unauthorized Israeli outposts and to allow expropriation of more Palestinian lands in the West Bank.

Over 400,000 Israeli settlers currently live in the West Bank and at least 200,000 others live in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as the capital city of their future state.

"Paris summit will at least restore priority of the Palestinian cause regionally and internationally, particularly after the recent UNSC resolution against Israeli settlements," said Samir Ghattas, head of Middle East Forum for Strategic Studies and member of the Egyptian parliament.

Ghattas continued that the conference will certainly have "a positive effect" due to the massive international representation, arguing that France tries to find a compromise to observe the Israeli interests as well as the Palestinian rights.

"There have been massive Israeli and U.S. pressures ahead of the summit that led French President Francois Hollande to say it is not an alternative to direct Palestinian-Israel talks, which is the Israeli and U.S. point of view," the expert told Xinhua, noting that direct talks have always suffered "strategic defects" for over 20 years.

Supported by the United States, Russia, China, the European Union and many others, the two-state solution seeks to put an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict via the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

"The summit is a spiritual political advantage to the Palestinian cause as it brings it back to light, yet we cannot pin much hope that it could practically advance the Middle East peace process," the political analyst and lawmaker told Xinhua.

source: Xinhua