EU welcomes UN resolution on Gaza plan. Albanese: “Not in accordance with international law”

Brussels – The  resolution of the UN Security Council, which essentially endorsed the peace plan for Gaza, is “an important step towards ending the conflict.” Or, “it is not in accordance with international law.” On the one hand, the comment of the European Commission—and most of the international community, including Israel and the Palestinian Authority—on the other, the warning of the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese. Who, from the European Parliament, relaunches the attack on the EU institutions, the “fig leaf” behind which the member states hide in their complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people. 

Last night, the UN Security Council approved a US-drafted resolution supporting Donald Trump’s peace plan. There were 13 votes in favour of the text; only Russia and China abstained, and no vetoes were cast. The resolution authorizes the creation of an international stabilisation force (ISF) that would work with Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinian police to secure the border areas and demilitarise the Gaza Strip. It also supports the formation of a Board of Peace, a transitional governing body for Gaza, chaired by Trump himself, with a mandate until the end of 2027. 

Absent in the drafts, the final text includes a reference to an independent Palestine, a vague path to future Palestinian statehood, and the price Washington paid to gain the support of the Arab and Islamic world for the resolution. Once the Palestinian Authority implements the required reforms, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible path towards Palestinian self-determination and statehood,” the text states.

“This vote will go down in history as one of the greatest endorsements in the history of the United Nations,” Trump immediately claimed. The Palestinian National Authority “welcomed” the resolution, which “protects our people in the Gaza Strip, prevents their deportation, ensures the full withdrawal of occupation forces, enables reconstruction, unlocks the two-state solution and prevents annexation.” On the other hand, Hamas rejected the text because “any international force, if established, must be deployed only to the borders to separate forces, monitor the ceasefire, and must be completely under UN supervision.” 

In Israel, President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the vote. Netanyahu, in a post on X, said that Trump’s plan “is good for peace and prosperity because it includes the complete disarmament and deradicalisation of the Strip.” But on the possibility of seeing a Palestinian state emerge, the prime minister—on whom an international arrest warrant hangs—reiterated that Israel’s opposition “has not changed one bit.” 

Today, the European Commission gave its endorsement: the spokesperson responsible for foreign affairs, Anouar El Anouni, said that “the resolution provides the basis for moving on to the next phase, including work on the international stabilisation force and the Peace Council.” A Board of Peace, the latter, from which the European Union does not want to remain excluded. 

This was the starting point for Francesca Albanese’s j’accuse at the European Parliament during a conference on “Palestine, International Law and the Role of Europe”. For the UN Special Rapporteur, who first denounced the ongoing genocide in Gaza and was sanctioned for it by the US administration, the EU’s demands for a greater role in the temporary administration of the Strip “are a colonial disgrace.” Instead of wanting to be at the negotiating table “in this rapacious, vulture-like way,” the EU should have “been at the table when the destruction of Gaza could have been prevented.” 

Albanese denounces European hypocrisy in supporting the two-state solution, because the reality of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the destruction of the Strip makes “any political discussion about two states fatuous.” The resolution approved by the UN then, “does not comply with international law”—denounces the UN expert—which requires that “Israel leave the Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem to the Palestinians, dismantle the settlements, withdraw its troops, and stop exploiting the natural and economic resources of the Palestinians.” In addition to the knot “of compensation to be paid for violence inflicted on the Palestinians,” which is completely absent from the Trumpian plan.