Comparative International Relations Tesi Di Laurea Magistr
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Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Relazioni Internazionali Comparate – Comparative International Relations Tesi di Laurea Magistrale La costruzione della posizione europea nel conflitto israelo-palestinese tra il 1980 e il 2010 Relatrice Dott.ssa Stéphanie Novak Correlatore Dott. Antonio Trampus Laureanda Jessica Ceron 854872 2 Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………..4 Introduzione……………………………………………………………………………………8 Capitolo I, Introduzione storica alla presenza Europea nel territorio Palestinese dalle origini agli anni ‘70……………..........................................................................................................13 1.1 Le origini della penetrazione europea in Medio-Oriente e il Mandato britannico………..13 1.2 Gli anni della seconda guerra mondiale e la fine del Mandato…………………………...22 1.3 La crisi di Suez e la guerra dei sei giorni ………………………………………………...31 1.4 La guerra del Kippur…… …………………………………………………....…………. 37 1.5 La ricerca di una posizione comune dei paesi europei …………………………………...39 Capitolo II, Le iniziative della Comunità economica europea nel processo di pace israelo- palestinese durante gli anni ’8………………………………………………………………...47 2.1 La dichiarazione di Venezia……...……………………………………………………….47 2.2 L’allargamento della CEE e le iniziative individuali dei suoi membri…………………...51 2.3 L’invasione del Libano e il ruolo dell’OLP……………………………………………55 2.4 L’intifada ………………………………………………………………………………...68 2.5 L’indipendenza palestinese ……………………………………………………………..70 Capitolo III, Il ruolo dell’Unione Europea nella questione israelo-palestinese durante gli anni ’90…………………………………………………………………………………………….72 3.1 Il trattato di Maastricht e la nascita della PESC…………………………………………..72 3.2 La conferenza di pace di Madrid………………………………………………………….74 3.3 Gli accordi di Oslo ……………………………………………………………………….79 3.4 Il processo di Barcellona………………………………………………………………….87 3.5 Lo stallo del processo di Oslo…………………………………………………………….92 Capitolo IV, L’Unione Europea e le sue iniziative nel processo di pace in Medio Oriente negli anni ‘2000…………………………………………………………………………………….99 4.1 I negoziati di Camp David del 2000 e la Seconda Intifada…………………………….....99 4.2 Gli attentati dell’11 settembre e la nascita del Quartetto ……………………………….104 4.3 Le missioni dell’Ue nei territori palestinesi e il rapporto con Hamas ………………….116 Conclusioni………………………………………………………………………………….128 3 Abstract The subject of this thesis is the building of European Union’s position in the Israeli- Palestinian peace process. The curiosity towards the way and the means through which the political entity designated now by the name “European Union” has intervened during the different phases of this tricky conflict, that deeply affects Middle East history, has moved my research. The search path is chronologically developed. It analyzes from one side the historical events that involved the Middle East region while from the other it studies the evolution of European interventions. These latter include the presence of individual states that had a colonial history and later it takes into account the joint actions that have been undertaken by the European Community firstly and by the European Union later. The analysis of this scenario becomes gradually more in-depth as we approach the recent period. The first part of the thesis briefly summarizes the events that involved Palestine after World War I, when the Ottoman Empire fade away. Then we examine the developments elapsed between European countries and the Middle East during the 80’s. Subsequently we offer a comprehensive analysis of EU projects concerning the Middle East peace process that took place between the 90’s and the first decade of the new millennium. Official documents released by European institutions will be examined in order to understand the main objectives pursued by EU to reach peace among Israel and Palestine. Finally in the conclusion we will have the chance to deduct and summarize from previous chapters the main obstacles the European Union had to overcome performing its political and diplomatic role in the Middle East. From those aspects we can draw the main flaws and strengths of European Union foreign policy as far as the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is concerned. The first chapter represents an historical introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian question. We start our analysis in the context of the Ottoman Empire collapse after World War I. Under these circumstances we examine the role of France and Great Britain, the main European colonial powers at that time. They intervened to share among them the territory of this region. In this period the British Mandate for Palestine, upon a League of Nations’ decision. 4 During this period waves of migration of Jewish population intensified because of Nazi persecutions. Those people were mostly coming from European countries. During the British Mandate period tensions among Arab and Jewish populations had already started. The Jewish population was growing faster and faster. Then this immigration grew enormously when the Israeli state was created in 1948, right after the end of the British administration. From now on the confrontation between these two nations became even harsher and it culminated in four Arab-Israeli wars that are analyzed in this first chapter. The first one is the 1948 war, that broke up when the Israeli state was proclaimed; then the Suez Crisis in 1956 during which Egypt fought against Israel; the Six-day War in 1967, a conflict during which Israel was opposed to different Arab countries that were hostile to it, as for example Syria, Egypt and Jordan; the Yom Kippur War in 1973 during which an Arab coalition made up of Egypt and Syria stroke Israel with surprise. At this stage the member states of the EC struggled to find a common position to hold towards the Israeli-Palestinian question. Since each country was more concerned with safeguarding its own national interests than giving rise to a unified European foreign policy. A weak signal towards this direction arrived when EU states approved unanimously United Nations Resolution 242 in 1967. This resolution implied the withdrawal of Israeli militias and the end of warlike demonstrations from both the parties involved in the conflict. At the beginning of the 70’s the European Political Cooperation (EPC) was established in order to harmonize the diverging points of view among the member countries of the EC. This organization would deal very often with the Middle East situation. The most important common stance during the 70’s was the London Declaration that placed the Palestinian right to return and to have their own nation at the centre of the debate. The last important event in this decade were the Camp David Accords, from which European countries were excluded though. In the second chapter we analyze the European involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process scenario during the 80’s. This decade starts with the Venice Declaration in 1980. It represents an important and revolutionary stance because the question of Palestinian refugees is discussed in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Moreover, for the first time the Palestinian Liberation Organization is mentioned with the purpose of making it part of negotiations. This declaration pushed European Community countries towards a more pro-Arab position. 5 Another important event that occurred in the 80’s is the enlargement of the EC with the admission of Greece firstly and subsequently of Spain and Portugal. As far as Middle East is concerned the most important event was the Lebanon invasion by Israel. This conflict made clear how important the PLO was becoming as a regional actor. Nevertheless the EC countries, the United States and Israel had very different opinions on the PLO. At the end of the decade headlines were occupied by the first Intifada. This event had started as a popular uprising of Palestinians to complain about their living conditions and the human rights violations to which they were daily subjected. The revolt ended just at the beginning of the 90’s. As Palestinian people are concerned, at the end of the decade the Palestinian Declaration of Independence was released. In the third chapter we examine the role of the European Union in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the 90’s. This is an important moment because the European actor finally manages to overcome the declaratory phase of its policy to become a major actor in this regional context. Its role, nevertheless, will be mainly economic and financial, since from a diplomatic point of view, the European Union still continues to be in the shadow of the United States, that is still the main mediator of the peace process in this decade. As far as innovations within the European Community are concerned, in this decade the Maastricht Treaty is released. It is a particularly important treaty since it decrees the birth of the European Union and of the CFSP (Commons Foreign Security Policy). Within this chapter we provide a wide space to the Madrid Peace Conference, that starts a series of bilateral and multilateral negotiations. The EU had the opportunity to play a leading role just in the second ones. The latter portion of this chapter deals with the process that starts form the Oslo Accords, those are the result of back-channel negotiations between the PLO and Israel. This is even the chance for a late official mutual recognition among the two sides. Within the context of these accords the different phases of an interim government of the Palestinian territories are established. Those accords were meant to lead to permanent status negotiations of those territories. 6 However during the second half of the decade this accord was slowed down till it was completely stalemated. Meanwhile, the UE played an important role at a regional level when it launched the Barcelona Process that involved an economic, political and cultural partnership among European Union countries and 12 states of the southern shore of the Mediterranean, among which there were Israel and the Palestinian Authority. On top of that in the CFSP context two new roles were established: the European Union Special Representative for the Middle East peace process and the EU High Representative for the CFSP.