Before he even set foot on the soil of the Holy Land, the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, indicated to Palestinians that he would not be maintaining the even-handed policy they have come to expect from EU leaders, writes Michael Jansen. He did so by making two significant omissions from the schedule of his visit to Israel and Gaza, which begins tomorrow afternoon.
The first was his decision not to meet Palestinian representatives in East Jerusalem. This omission is doubly distressing for Palestinians, who claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, because Mr Blair has stressed that this tour is being made in his capacity as holder of the EU presidency as well as in his capacity as Britain's chief minister.
For several years EU ministerial delegations visiting Jerusalem have met Israeli leaders in West Jerusalem and then called upon Mr Faisal Husseini, the PLO leader in charge of the "Jerusalem file". Initially these delegations paid calls to Orient House, the PLO headquarters in the eastern sector of the city, but after Israeli objections, EU visitors met Palestinian officials elsewhere in East Jerusalem. The EU aim was to maintain a balanced approach to the explosive issue of Jerusalem, the final status of which is meant to be the subject of negotiation rather than unilateral action.
Mr Blair seems to have abandoned this practice without consulting other EU members.
The second omission involved a diplomatic slight to the Palestinians. Mr Blair originally intended to spend one night as the guest of the Palestine Authority in Gaza, becoming the first foreign head of government and EU president to do so, and one night with his Israeli hosts. But when news of this plan was unwisely leaked by the Palestinians, Israel protested and the sleep-over in Gaza was dropped.