The Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process and PalestinianJapanese Relations(excerpts from Japan’s MOFA Bluebook)
Diplomatic Bluebook 2017
PCPSR
5.Middle East Peace Process
(1) Developments in Middle East Peace Process
The U.S. mediation led to direct negotiations between Israel and Palestine from July 2013 to April 2014. However, they faltered in the face of a wide gap in the positions of the two sides, and there have been no signs of resumption since then.
The security situation has been worsening in Israel and at the West Bank since around mid-2015 with frequent collisions between Israelis and Palestinians. While the situation appeared to subside from the beginning of 2016, the mutual distrust is strong and there is no sense of moving towards peace. In addition, Israel continues its settlement policy and the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip has been deteriorating as well.
The international community has continued to urge both Israel and Palestine to resume the negotiations at an early date to improve such situation. In particular, France called for an international conference in an attempt to break through the status quo. To discuss all sorts of means to resume negotiations and reaffirm the two-state solution, a ministerial-level meeting was held in June for major countries other than Israel and Palestine and attended by Japanese Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace.
On December 23, the UN Security Council adopted UN Security Council Resolution 2334 demanding that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities, with 14 countries, including Japan, voting for the resolution and the one country (the U.S.) abstaining.Full Report