Meet the EU envoy hoping to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process

Sven Koopmans is on what many would consider to be a mission impossible – to breathe life back into the idea of an Israeli-Palestinian peace process at a time when many people think the two-state vision is dead and buried.

One could consider that he is the epitome of the slogan, “Build it and they will come.” 

So it was that in the middle of a July heat wave, the soft-spoken sincere Dutch politician who has served as the European Union’s Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process since May 2021, sat on a sixth-floor Jerusalem terrace at the Ambassador Boutique Hotel to discuss how he wants to create an oasis of hope at an otherwise volatile and violent time.

The hotel’s shadow and Jerusalem winds created a temporary pleasantly cool outdoor spot that protected him from the bright sunshine, as he explained to The Jerusalem Post that the first steps in his process are imagination and faith.

“Imagine one day that there will be peace, I know it is very hard, I am not saying it [will be] very soon, but let’s imagine that one day there will be peace,” Koopmans said.

When that happens, “there will be good positive friendly relations between Israel and the entire region, and I would think the entire world.”

So why wait for that far-off moment, said Koopmans as he leaned forward. 

“Let’s start mapping” that future now, in which Israel will be at peace with the Palestinians and the region.

“Let’s start envisioning what the future could be, leaving it to the Israelis and Palestinians to do the essential bit to make it happen,” he said.

The blond-haired diplomat had taken off his blue suit jacket for the conversation and sat in a white button-down shirt with his sleeves slightly rolled up.

His initiative, which lacks a formal name and has not made major headlines, carries an enormous amount of weight, given that Koopmans represents a 27-member bloc. Beyond that, he is working on behalf of the EU together with the 22-member Arab League bloc and one of its leading members, Saudi Arabia.

EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell has held a number of meetings on the informal initiative. This included a trilateral gathering this past September on the sidelines of the high-level opening session of the UN General Assembly and another one in February with Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan.

The initiative is not expected to result in an EU-led peace process akin to past US initiatives. 

“I am not talking about another road map, I think that after all the experiences we have had over the last 30 years… very few people have any faith in the next road map,” Koopmans said.

“Whoever produces the next road map, if it has seven steps, few people will think you ever get to step seven, they probably don’t think you will get to step three,” he said.

Efforts will help create package of incentives to sway Israeli, Palestinians to engage in talks

Koopmans said he hopes his efforts will help create a package of incentives to sway Israeli and Palestinians to engage in talks toward a two-state resolution to the conflict within any framework acceptable to both parties.

“We can do our own homework to prepare for the day of peace and that is the assignment I have from 27 foreign ministers. “On that basis I am working closely with partners around the world to create what we would say would be our peace package,” Koopmans said.

The initiative is intended to exist alongside the US-brokered Abraham Accords from 2020, by which Israel agreed to normalize ties with four Arab states: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. The US and Israel are pushing to expand that circle of peace to include other Arab states, primarily Saudi Arabia. 

The Abraham Accords fall in line with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s formula that Israel must first normalize ties with its Arab neighbors, a move that would eventually sway the Palestinians to finalize a peace deal with the Jewish state.

The EU, the Arab League, and the Saudi Arabian trilateral plan relies subtly, however, on the revival of the Arab League Peace Initiative of 2002, which offered Israel normalized ties with the region only after it withdrew to the pre-1967 lines, including giving up the Golan Heights.

“We are working closely with the Saudis” on this, Koopmans said. “We want to have Israeli integrated into the region with full recognition” by Arab states “at the same time as solving the Palestinian issue.”

To do this, he said, “we are building on” the Arab Peace Initiative of over 20 years ago, he explained.

Israel has never embraced the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. With the exception of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, it has always rejected any initiative based on the pre-1967 lines. 

Palestinians have stood firm on two states precisely based on those lines. Most members of the existing Israeli government, in contrast, reject the idea of a Palestinian state and want to encompass Area C of the West Bank into Israel’s final borders.

The gulf between the two positions is so wide and seemingly impossible to bridge that US President Joe Biden has not even attempted to hold negotiations for a two-state resolution to the conflict.

Koopmans said he is not discouraged by the seeming intractability of the situation, nor, he said, does he want to get to caught up in the details of how, and why, each side is entrenched in their positions.

Propelled forward by necessity, he is not concerned by the vast differences between his position and that of the Israelis.

“If everyone gives their vision [of peace], and I am sure they will be incompatible visions, then we can start talking about how to get there. This may sound very vague and I accept that. But I am being very concrete 

“Let’s first get together with all the contributors to peace, the outside parties, and say what we are contributing to peace.”

At present, he said, “There is no peace process and the situation on the ground is deteriorating every day. So many people die, so many people are wounded, so many people live in fear, and there seems to be no hope in sight and that needs to change,” Koopmans said.

So it is this aspect of hope that he wants to focus on, particularly given his background in mediation on behalf of the EU and the UN in conflict zones such as Ukraine, Syria, Darfur, Mali, Cyprus, and Sudan. 

It is not his role, he said, to dictate the terms of any final status agreement.

“I was in the private sector. I was in politics, and I am certainly not an expert on here [Israel], I have been involved in quite a few peace processes, some worked, some didn’t.”

“I am this guy from Amsterdam. I was very lucky I grew up in a very safe environment, there was no conflict around me.

“I did not have people who thought I should not live where I live or that I should not be there, for me it is very easy,” Koopmans said.

He explained that he can observe how “people from all sides live with this constant sense of fear” but “I do not want to presume that I can fully understand that.”

Instead, he wants to use his mediation skills to help them visualize a different reality.

“I engage with the Israeli government with the Palestinian leadership and many others to say what are you first doing, yourself, for peace today? What is your vision? And what would you like us to contribute?” Koopmans said. 

During his brief trip to Jerusalem this week, he spoke with Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi about the initiative.

To move forward he has to ask those he is engaging with to dismiss pragmatic obstacles and the doomsday fears, so that they can focus on a seemingly improbable future.

“I want to work with everyone to elaborate as much as possible on how... beneficial it would be to everyone if there is peace” without touching on the problems.

“I am not saying that if we put all of that on the table, that in of itself would be sufficient to change the political landscape.

“I do not want to presume that if we put all sorts of wonderful things on the table... Israeli would [let go of] their legitimate concerns about security,” Koopmans said. 

“But it may make a contribution to show that peace is still necessary and that it is also attractive,” he explained.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict can’t just be reduced to “crisis management” and “to policing violence,” he said.

“If we do not all of us do something, it will continue to deteriorate,” he said, which will lead to despair and desperation.

“We have to create some hope,” particularly among the Palestinians, he said. “Otherwise, you will always have people who do turn violent.” 

Of course, “This is not a justification” for violence, but rather an understanding that “desperate people do terrible things” and “we do not want them to do terrible things.”

“We all have an obligation as non-desperate people who try to do good things to show that there is something to live for,” he said.