"We shall renew the negotiations with the Palestinians, we have no other choice," said Israeli President Shimon Peres in Brussels where he started a weeklong state visit to Belgium, the European Union and France.
Speaking on Tuesday at an event hosted by the umbrella representative groups of the Belgian Jewish community, the president responded to "concerns" about the Israeli government’s policy expressed by the rector of the Brussels Free University (ULB), Didier Viviers, who was invited to debate with the Israeli leader in presence of ambassadors, academics, politicians and members of the Jewish community.
Viviers’s presence at the event had been sharply criticized by several fellow professors as well as by pro-Palestinian and extreme left pro-boycott activists who staged a demonstration in front of the Palais des Academies where the event took place.
"I accepted the invitation to discuss with the president and to ask him a few questions as part of our freedom of speech," he said.
"My university, Mister President, is concerned about violations of international law. The colonisation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal and violates the Geneva Convention," the rector told Peres.
He also questioned the president's personal position on the issue and what he called the "double discourse." "While you are in favor of negotiations with the Palestinians on the issue, colonisation, which is the main obstacle, continues, even in East Jerusalem, a policy which is condemned by the Europeans," he said, before bluntly asking : "Mr President dont’you feel that you are used by Netanyahu and Lieberman."
In his lenghty response, Peres recalled that the Arabs rejected the partition plan of Palestine in 1947 into a Jewish and an Arab state. "The Arabs rejected it while we accepted."
"Israel was attacked seven times, went through seven wars not only with the Palestinians but also with Arab countries." "We made peace with Egypt and Jordan and we gave back all land and water, and though people still criticze us.," he said.
Recalling the time when he had to replace Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin after he was assassinated in 1995, Peres stressed that Palestinian terror followed began with several bloody bus bombings.
"But we later started a peace process with the Palestinians, we helped buit their economy, their security. We agreed to give back the Gaza Israeli settlements completely. Instead of creating a state, Hamas, a terror group, took control of Gaza."
" We have to complete our negotiations with the Palestinians but Hamas, which controls Gaza, doesn’t want to negotiate while the PLO under President Abbas in the West Bank doesn’t have control over the whole situation."
In an interview with Euronews the Israeli President said he believes that “with the new (Israeli) government there is a chance to reopen the negotiations.”
“I feel there is a sort of maturity on both sides. Basically, to understand that with the opening of negotiations you can’t solve all the problems. The opening is an opening to summarize what you did agree and to look for solutions,” he added.