Three left-wing European governments say they will officially recognise Palestine as a state later this month, leaving a furious Israel accusing them of rewarding terrorism.
Norway, Ireland, and Spain are to break with the Western norm and join nations worldwide including Russia and China in recognising Palestine as a state, they said. The change is to officially take place on May 28th.
The Financial Times notes the initiative to recognise Palestine as legal state has been led by Spain and Ireland, and that they had actively courted other European states to join them. While Norway appears to be one of those, others including Belgium, Malta and Slovenia declined to join Tuesday’s declaration.
Europe is already deeply split over the Hamas terror attack against Israel and its consequences, differences illustrated by the variegated responses to the International Criminal Court (ICC) stating it would be seeking an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week. These differences of opinion often boil down to political positioning, with Europe’s foreign affairs chief — a Spanish socialist politician — proclaiming his own views as European policy.
The trio of nations declaring for Palestinian statehood today are, too, all led by left-wing progressive governments. At the heart of the declaration and the remarks of the nations’ leaders is calls for a “two state solution” for Israel. Spain’s now increasingly notorious socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez accused Netanyahu of causing a “massacre” against Palestine and that: “we’re not going to allow the possibility of the two-state solution to be destroyed by force because it’s the only just and sustainable solution to this terrible conflict”.
The Jerusalem Post reports, and has withdrawn its ambassadors to the Norway, Ireland, and Spain. The ambassadors of those states to Israel have been summoned to Jerusalem to receive protests in person, it is stated.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused the countries of rewarding Hamas terrorism by now giving into their demands. He wrote: Israel will not remain silent in the face of those undermining its sovereignty and endangering its security. Today’s decision sends a message to the Palestinians and the world: Terrorism pays… these countries chose to reward Hamas and Iran by recognizing a Palestinian state.”
Norway, Ireland, and Spain had handed a boost to Hamas, undermined efforts to get Israeli hostages returned, and damaged hopes for peace, Katz said.