On Thursday, February the 12th, Minister-President Geert Bourgeois received a Palestinian delegation headed by President Mahmoud Abbas in his official residence, Errera House.
During a thirty-minute meeting President Abbas outlined the latest developments on the Palestinian attempts to gain international recognition of the Palestinian state. He also talked about the Israeli refusal to redistribute tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority. This lack of income and resources make life in the Palestinian Territories more and more difficult, feeding extremism and radicalization.
Minister-President Bourgeois reconfirmed the position of his Government in favour of a negotiated two-state solution respecting the borders of 1967, and rejected the Israeli settlement policy in the occupied territories. Minister-President Bourgeois promised to look into possibilities to strengthen the cooperation between Flanders and the Palestinian territories.
