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Palestinian Conflict Department of Political Science Chair of Comparative Public Law Master Thesis The steep path to the independence: Swedish Foreign Policy’s involvement in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict SUPERVISOR Prof. Cristina Fasone CANDIDATE ELAJMI ADAM 631872 CO-SUPERVISOR Prof. Roberta Mulas ACADEMIC YEAR 2016 – 2017 I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my parents, Mustapha Elajmi and Fatima Hamri, without whom I would not be writing these acknowledgements today. Thank you for your eternal support, for the opportunities you gave me, but above all, thank you for being you. My second thought goes to my grandparents, particularly my grandfather Allal Hamri who did not have the chance to study but made sure his children and grandchildren would have the opportunity to do so. An example to me, he taught me so much about life that it is impossible to sum it up in few lines. Then, I would like to thank my family, especially my three brothers, Anass, Nabil and Reda, who were always there for me, in good and bad times. As our father used to say, we are like the five fingers of the hand, take one off and your abilities are reduced. No matter what life holds for me, one thing is certain: I will always be able to count on you, just as I will always be there for you. Next, I would like to thank my aunt, Malika Hamri, my external reader, for her thoughtful advice and the time she devoted to my thesis. My penultimate thought goes to my supervisors, Cristina Fasone and Jihane Sfeir. While the subject of this thesis and its structure are the fruit of endless conversations with Jihane Sfeir, Cristina Fasone’s valuable advice enabled me to overcome times of doubt and finish this research successfully. Finally, I wish to thank anyone who has played a part in what I have become, whether it is my friends, teachers or anyone I have crossed the paths with. II ABSTRACT This work aims to address Swedish foreign policy’s involvement towards the Israeli- Palestinian conflict over the years. Having a specific interest towards the Palestinian question, it is hence divided in two parts, the first one addressing the Palestinians’ claim for statehood in terms of international law, the second one focusing on Swedish foreign policy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the years. In the first part of this research, we proceeded step by step to examine if Palestine could pretend to the status of State according to international law. What comes out from this analysis is that Palestine fulfills the Montevideo criteria, qualifications a State should possess to be considered as such in accordance with international law. Thus, our attention shifted to the question of recognition to end up examining why the EU did not recognize the State of Palestine yet as it has already been recognized by more than 135 countries worldwide. Finally, we took a close look at the recent change of strategy that had been operated by the Palestinian leadership to find out that the international path was chosen to unlock the bilateral negotiations deadlock. In the second part of this work, we undertook an analysis of Swedish foreign policy’s involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so as to understand its recent recognition of the State of Palestine in October 2014. Whilst Sweden has been involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1947, it appears that the arrival to power of Olof Palme in 1969 further increased Sweden’s involvement in the conflict as Palme proceeded to a reassessment of Swedish foreign policy. Since then, we observed that Sweden strove for the Palestinian cause, primarily through what we refer to as back channel diplomacy. Consequently, the recent recognition of the State of Palestine by Sweden has to be understood as the continuity of the Swedish foreign policy. Whereas it is possible to explain Swedish foreign policy’s involvement in the conflict by the importance it confers to the respect of international law and human rights, to point out that its involvement not only paved the way for the Oslo Accords but also for a sustainable dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis, our two last hypotheses have to be rejected. In fact, while the Swedish recognition of the State of Palestine in October 2014 did trigger a reaction among EU Member States, the results are far from what we expected. Likewise, the recognition of the State of Palestine by 136 States did not pave the way for a sustainable solution to the conflict. Although it is possible to speak of a Swedish exceptionalism, it remains that recognition of the State of Palestine by the EU could have a greater effect on the conflict as it is perceived as a legitimizing and normative power. III TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ I ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. III TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................... IV LIST OF ACRONYMS ............................................................................................................ VI INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 1 STATE OF THE ART ................................................................................................................ 5 THEORETICAL APPROACH ................................................................................................ 12 PART ONE: THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE AND INTERNATIONAL LAW .............. 17 CHAPTER I: PALESTINE FULFILLMENT OF MONTEVIDEO CRITERIA .................... 17 A. AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF PALESTINE’S QUEST FOR RECOGNITION AS A STATE ........................................................................................................................ 17 B. IS PALESTINE A STATE ACCORDING TO INTERNATIONAL LAW? ................ 21 1. The territory .............................................................................................................. 22 2. The population .......................................................................................................... 23 3. The government ........................................................................................................ 25 4. The capacity to enter into relations with the other States ........................................ 28 CHAPTER II: MODERN INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE STATE OF PALESTINE’S RECOGNITION ....................................................................................................................... 31 A. THE STATE OF PALESTINE, A NEW STATE AMONG OTHERS ......................... 31 B. EARLY AND MODERN VIEW ON RECOGNITION ............................................... 32 1. Early view of recognition ......................................................................................... 32 2. The recognition on its way to its modern view ........................................................ 32 C. CONSTITUTIVE AND DECLARATORY THEORIES: FACTS AND CONTRADICTIONS ........................................................................................................... 33 1. Constitutive theory ................................................................................................... 33 2. Declaratory theory .................................................................................................... 34 3. A tendency to opt for the declaratory theory ............................................................ 35 D. ACQUIRING THE RECOGNITION OF ITS PEERS: A TWO STAGE PROCESS ... 36 1. The desire to be recognized as a State ...................................................................... 36 2. The acceptance of a State to consider another as an equal ....................................... 37 3. Recognition of the State of Palestine: the EU position ............................................ 38 a. Procedure and criteria ........................................................................................... 38 b. Alternatives to the absence of an EU recognition procedure ............................... 40 c. The European Parliament offensive ..................................................................... 41 CHAPTER III: INTERNATIONALIZATION OF THE CONFLICT: BILATERAL NEGOTIATIONS PUT ON HOLD? ....................................................................................... 42 A. A CHANGE OF STRATEGY ...................................................................................... 42 1. Reasons for the internationalization of the conflict ................................................. 42 2. The legal « offensive », or the use of international law as the novelty of the internationalization strategy ............................................................................................. 44 a. Planned initiative or made on an impulse ? .......................................................... 44 b. States’ opposition to Palestine membership to multilateral treaties ..................... 45 B. INTERNATIONAL LAW AS A MEAN TO DEAL BETWEEN EQUALS ............... 46 1. Palestine within the United Nations’ system............................................................ 48 2. Becoming a member of international organizations as a way to remain on the international agenda ........................................................................................................
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