Spain says Europe is ready to recognise a Palestinian state
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez ,one of Europe’s more pro-Palestinian leaders, has said that there is an appetite from all countries across Europe to recognise a Palestinian state, the AFP reported.
Sanchez has been alarmed at the shocking death toll in Gaza – 34,000 as of April 16 – , warning that Israel is becoming a threat to world peace due to its actions in the blockaded enclave.
Spain has urged a permanent ceasefire, the immediate opening of humanitarian corridors as well as the need for more aid to be let into Gaza and a two-state solution.
The premier, while presenting a report on foreign policy to the Congress of Deputies (Spain’s lower house of parliament) on April 10, said that the Palestinian state should be recognised because it is the “right thing” is in the geopolitical interest of Europe and because the international community will not be able to help the Palestinian state should it refuse to recognise its existence.
Mr Sanchez announced on April 12 that he was embarking on a European tour to tout the idea to fellow heads of state.
Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said his government would wait for the European Union and the United Nations to work out a common position on the issue of the recognition of such a state and therefore said that his country was not ready to recognise it yet.
READ: EU finally pushes for Palestinian state
Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob endorsed the idea and said that the country would vote in favour Palestine’s full membership at the world body should a vote at the UN Security Council on the matter take place soon.
Palestine is currently a non-observer member state of the UN however it still has the power to speak and vote on procedural matters but not on more important matters.
Despite some opposition from his party, British Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron pushed for the recognition of Palestinian statehood and a two-state solution and talked about those issues, in great detail, when meeting with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah in late January, just a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that he was against recognising a Palestinian state when on a phone call to President Biden.
Various lawmakers in the governing Conservative Party have claimed that such a recognition would be “rewarding Hamas’ atrocities” on October 7.
In late February, 99 out of 120 members of the Israeli Parliament were on board with the Netanyahu position, making their feeling known in a vote on the issue.
AFP
