CNN
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Ireland, Spain and Norway have announced plans to formally recognize a Palestinian state next week, a move likely to strengthen the global Palestinian cause but further strain relations between Europe and Israel.
The three European countries say their historic decision is the best way to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East, but it has drawn swift condemnation from Israel, with its foreign minister ordering the immediate recall of its ambassadors of these countries.
Most of the world already recognizes a Palestinian state. More than 140 of the 193 member states of the United Nations have formalized their recognition. But only a few nations of the 27-member European Union are part of it.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris told a press conference in Dublin on Wednesday: “Today, Ireland, Norway and Spain announce that we recognize the State of Palestine. Each of us will now take all necessary national measures to give effect to this decision.
The recognition will come into force in all three countries on May 28, Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin said.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said a Palestinian state was “a precondition for achieving peace in the Middle East.”
“There will be no peace in the Middle East without a two-state solution,” Støre said in a statement. “There cannot be a two-state solution without a Palestinian state. »
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez sought to characterize the decision as not anti-Israeli.
“This recognition is not against the people of Israel and certainly not against the Jewish people,” he said. “This is not in favor of Hamas. It is in favor of coexistence.
The announcement was welcomed by Palestinian officials.
“This measure reflects Spain’s desire to support the Palestinian people and their inalienable and legitimate rights to their land and homeland,” the Palestinian Authority president’s office said in response to Madrid’s decision, as the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, urged other countries to follow suit and “recognize our legitimate national rights, support our people’s struggle for liberation and independence, and end the occupation.” Zionist of our land.”
As Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz ordered the immediate recall of his ambassadors to Spain, Norway and Ireland, he said in a statement: “I am sending a clear message today: Israel will not hold back not against those who undermine its sovereignty and endanger its sovereignty. security.”
“After the terrorist organization Hamas committed the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, after committing the most horrific sexual crimes the world has known, these countries chose to give a reward to Hamas and Iran and recognize a Palestinian state,” Katz added. .
Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza on October 7 after Hamas-led militants killed at least 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 250 others.
Israel has faced heavy criticism for its war. Earlier this month, a group of independent UN experts condemned the “continued and systematic onslaught of violence against Palestinians in Gaza.” The agency has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages taken by Hamas.
Israeli attacks in Gaza have since killed at least 35,647 Palestinians and injured 79,852 others, according to the Health Ministry. CNN cannot independently confirm these figures.
The three European leaders stressed the importance of having a Palestinian state to achieve a two-state solution in the Middle East, a goal the international community has failed to achieve for decades.
Senior US officials, close allies of Israel, have insisted that the only way to bring peace and stability to the region is through the creation of a Palestinian state with guarantees for Israel’s security. Israeli lawmakers have long rejected these calls.
Reacting to the news on Wednesday, a National Security Council spokesperson told CNN that US President Joe Biden “is a strong supporter” of a two-state solution. The spokesperson added, however: “He believes that a Palestinian state should be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties, and not through unilateral recognition. »
France, meanwhile, said it was not the “right time” for it to join its European neighbors in recognizing a Palestinian state. The country’s Foreign Minister, Stéphane Séjourne, added that such a decision is not simply a “symbolic question or a question of political positioning” but rather a “diplomatic tool” in the service of a two-state solution .
Germany, another of Israel’s staunchest allies, also questioned the decision. Michael Roth, chairman of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, posted on le) October 7 last year. .”
Ireland has long openly supported the Palestinian cause, consistently criticizing Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank and Gaza before the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7. Since then, Israel’s response war has destroyed huge parts of the Gaza Strip and drained essential resources, putting the entire population, more than 2.2 million people, at risk of famine.
The planned recognition adds additional pressure on Israel after seven months of fighting, according to HA Hellyer, a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in London.
“For individual Palestinians on the ground in the occupied territories, this won’t mean anything at all in the short term, maybe in the medium term,” Hellyer told CNN. “This is obviously a political recognition from states that are not present on the ground.”
Hellyer added that Israel risks becoming an “international pariah” given that Western nations are now beginning to recognize a Palestinian state.
6:00 p.m. – Source: CNN
If Palestinians don’t have homes, Israelis won’t, says prominent Israeli author
Israel captured Gaza from Egypt in the 1967 war, then withdrew its troops and settlers in 2005. The territory, home to some 2 million Palestinians, fell to Hamas control in 2007.
After Hamas took control of the territory, Israel and Egypt imposed a strict siege on the territory, which still continues. Israel also maintains an air and naval blockade on Gaza. These severe restrictions have been strongly criticized by international organizations, including Amnesty International, who believe that Israel has violated international law.
The vast majority of Gaza’s population are descendants of 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forcibly expelled from their homes during what Palestinians call al-Nakba, or “the catastrophe,” of the 1948 war. -49, in what is today Israel.
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