The Palestinian Foreign Ministry accuses EU Commission President von der Leyen of “anti-Palestinian rhetoric”. The reason is a sentence in her greeting on the anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. Von der Leyen sharply rejected the criticism.
A greeting from EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel triggered a diplomatic scandal with the Palestinians.
Von der Leyen said on Wednesday that Israel had “literally made the desert bloom.” The phrase is often used in Israel to refer to the country’s achievements.
From the Palestinian perspective, however, he suggests that the region was neither farmed nor inhabited before the founding of Israel. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry accused von der Leyen of undermining the EU’s reputation by adopting “anti-Palestinian rhetoric” and demanded an apology.
“Racist denial” of flight and expulsion
A discourse like that of the German politician “wipes out the Palestinian people and distorts their rich history and civilization,” it said. At the same time, the narratives used perpetuated the “persistent and racist denial” of the flight and expulsion of around 700,000 Palestinians in the course of the founding of the state of Israel and the first Middle East war in 1948. Immediately after the proclamation of the Jewish state, five Arab states attacked Israel.
“Unacceptable reaction”
Von der Leyen had the criticism rejected with sharp words. One was “uncomfortably surprised at the inappropriate statement by the Palestinian Foreign Ministry,” said a spokesman at the request of the dpa news agency. The Palestinian authorities are asked to clarify the “unacceptable reaction”.
The EU Commission said that in her greeting, von der Leyen merely referred to the fact that Israel had made former desert areas usable for agriculture. After the desert sentence, the President of the Commission said that she had been able to see the blossoms last year during a visit to the Negev desert.
Her spokesman’s statement also pointed out that the EU is the Palestinian Authority’s main donor. She consistently supports the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a state and is committed to a negotiated two-state solution.