Nearly 30 foreign ministers from countries in Europe and the Middle East met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday to unveil a new initiative aimed at reviving the long-dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
The “Peace Day Effort” was driven by the European Union, Saudi Arabia, the Arab League, Egypt, and Jordan, who agreed at the event to produce a “Peace Supporting Package” in the coming months that will maximize dividends for Israelis and Palestinians, once they reach a peace agreement.
Participants agreed to form three working groups that will be tasked with producing the components of the package.
One working group will outline potential post-peace regional, political, and security cooperation mechanisms. A second working group will develop proposals for economic cooperation in areas such as trade, investment, innovation, transportation, natural resources, and the environment. A third working group will develop proposals for cooperation in humanitarian, inter-cultural, and human security issues.
Participating countries also agreed to assess the initiative’s progress every three months before presenting the finalized Peace Supporting Package by September 2024.
The main architect of the initiative, EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process Sven Koopmans, told The Times of Israel in a Sunday interview that the plan’s contributors are “envisaging… what regionally and globally everybody would contribute the moment that there is an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.”
He clarified that those behind the Peace Day Effort are not trying to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, since only the parties themselves can do this. “What we are now starting to do is to say, ‘If you reach that agreement… this is what we would contribute as your neighbors, as your friends and potential future friends to your peace.'”
The EU envoy said the package would also include incentives for the Syrian and Lebanese governments to make peace with Israel, without elaborating further.
With a hardline, anti-two-state solution government currently in power in Jerusalem and an ever-weakening Palestinian leadership clinging to power in Ramallah, Koopmans admitted that peace talks are not likely any time soon.
“There is still a lot that their friends and potential friends can do themselves to prepare the ground,” he maintained.
The senior EU official said Brussels continues to advance a policy opposing Israel’s presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. However, the initiative unveiled Monday is focused on offering incentives to the parties, rather than continuing a more punitive approach.
The Peace Day Effort is also building on a 2013 offer by the EU to present an “unprecedented package of political, security and economic support” to both of the conflict’s parties once they reach a peace deal. The terms of such an offer were never fleshed out and the formation of the working groups will provide the sides an opportunity to do so, Koopmans said.
He went on to express his hope that the Peace Day Effort would spark a debate in Israel over how it wants to end the conflict. “With this effort, we hope to make a contribution to that debate.”
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