UPDATES WITH MORE COMMENTS FROM CANADIAN, SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTERS
By Alyssa McMurtry
OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - An Israeli offensive on the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah is “unacceptable because Palestinians have nowhere to go” Canada’s foreign minister said on Sunday.
“We believe in the right of Israel to exist … We also have a foreign policy all about human security … And the protection of civilians has been at the core of everything we’ve been doing,” Melanie Joly said during a panel discussion at Germany’s Munich Security Conference.
“I believe that every single civilian life – Israeli and Palestinian – is equal. This conflict has had proportions that are unacceptable,” she later added.
Some 1.5 million Palestinians previously displaced by Israel's offensive on Gaza are holed up in Rafah, seeking refuge from hostilities that have laid waste to wide swathes of Palestinian territory.
Israel's reported plans for an offensive on the city have sounded international alarm bells, with many countries urging restraint or cancelation of the operation.
Discussing the Palestinian and Israeli situation with her Spanish and Jordanian counterparts, as well as with a former Israeli foreign minister, Joly outlined Canada’s vision for a lasting peace.
First, she said, “we need an Israeli government that is willing to talk about a two-state solution.”
At the same time, she said Arab nations must normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, which would include a security deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
“We could have a very different Munich Security Conference next year. But time is of the essence; we only have a couple of months,” she said. “(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu cannot just continue to wage his war.”
-‘Palestinian state, tomorrow, not the next day’
Joly added that it is important to “put pressure” on Netanyahu and to differentiate between his government and the nation of Israel.
In the short term, she said what is needed is a hostage deal and the entrance of humanitarian aid in Gaza to build political momentum, as she said “good dancing partners” are currently lacking.
During the conversation, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel disagreed slightly, saying the what is needed immediately is a permanent cease-fire as well as a release of hostages.
And he said what is needed “for tomorrow, not the day after tomorrow, is a Palestinian state.”
Albares defined Spain’s vision for a viable Palestinian state as “Gaza and the West Bank, under one single Palestinian authority, connected by a corridor with an exit to the sea and with its capital in East Jerusalem.”
His description received nods of agreement from Joly but was contested by former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who said the corridor did not exist in 1967 and that the situation is “more complex” than the “slogans that some are using.”
Albares added that Israel is a “friend to Spain” but said his government will not “lower its voice in the defense of Palestinian citizens.”
“I don’t see any political vision behind all this violence,” he added, saying the Palestinian people’s hopes for a realistic state are “completely interlinked” with Israeli security.
More than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, with UN agencies warning that a planned ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah, near the border with Egypt, would have even more disastrous consequences for civilians.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide, and guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.