President Trump’s plan for a Palestinian state is a smokescreen to legitimise Israel’s theft of Palestinian land, its illegal settlements, the creeping annexation of Jerusalem and the Jordan valley, the forced displacement of Palestinians and the apartheid wall.

For decades, Israel has sought to create “facts on the ground” to destroy any effort for the two state solution. Trump is now rewarding Israel for this lawless behaviour, including the many grave violations of international law and war crimes.

The so-called plan ignores completely the human rights of Palestinians, their legitimate aspirations or desire for justice.

For the people of Palestine who suffer under Israel’s occupation, very little will change except that they will live in a make-believe state. We echo the Palestinian rejection of the Trump-Netanyahu plan as an attempt to annihilate their struggle for justice including the right of return for refugees.

GUE/NGL is concerned over the consequences of this generous gift by the US administration to Israel, namely the message that it sends to Israel’s sense of impunity and to the world at large over the primacy of international law and the enduring parameters for the resolution of the conflict.

We call on the EU to reaffirm its commitment to a sovereign, viable and contiguous Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on the 1967 borders, through rejection of Trump’s plan and recognition of a Palestinian state.

The EU must end its complicity with Israel’s violations and its business as usual approach. The EU must immediately suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement and all of the special benefits it affords Israel under the agreement, until Israel falls in line with international law and respects the human rights of Palestinians.

We express our deepest solidarity with the Palestinian people and the progressive forces in Israel, who struggle for peace, justice and equality. We stand with Arab citizens of Israel threatened with their citizenship being stripped under this plan, albeit their second-class status.

GUE/NGL will continue to raise the Palestinian plight loud and clear in the European Parliament.