From words to deeds. After announcing their willingness to proceed with the recognition of the Palestinian state, Spain, Ireland and Norway have set a date, May 28th. The three countries will take the step of recognition next week which, the leaders said, will help in the peace process towards achieving a two-state solution. Israel contested the decision and recalled the ambassadors from the three countries, without ruling out further measures. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the plans of Madrid, Dublin and Oslo to recognize the Palestinian state are “a reward for terrorism”. According to the leader, the Palestinian state would be a “terrorist state” that would try to repeat the October 7 massacre. The announcement was instead welcomed by both the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas.
The EU big names responded to the step forward with caution. Paris stated that the recognition of Palestine “is not a taboo” but that at the moment there are no conditions for this measure to be actually useful. For Berlin, recognition must take place only after the achievement of the two-state solution, while Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he was in favor of the birth of a Palestinian state but at the end of the war and with UN administration, rejecting “steps that only serve to create tension.”
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EU High Representative Josep Borrell said he had “taken note” of Spain and Ireland’s decision and pledged to work to reach a common position in the EU. At the moment there are 7 EU states that have already recognized Palestine, including five from the former Soviet bloc, as well as Cyprus and Sweden. The next ones could be Malta and Slovenia which at the end of March had signed a declaration together with Spain and Ireland in which the four governments said they were ready to recognize the Palestinian state.
The USA did not share the position of Spain, Ireland and Norway. Joe Biden’s administration has stressed that the president believes that a Palestinian state “must be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties and not through unilateral recognition.”
Meanwhile, in Israel the release of a video containing images of the kidnapping of five Israeli soldiers from the Nahal Oz base has sparked controversy against Netanyahu’s actions. “The video is a damning testimony to the nation’s failure to bring home the hostages, who have been abandoned for 229 days,” the Hostages’ Family Forum wrote in a statement, urging the government not to waste time and to “return to negotiating table.” Netanyahu, against whom the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has requested an arrest warrant for war crimes, said he was shocked by the video and reiterated his promise to “eliminate Hamas”.
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Meanwhile, the leader of the Palestinian fundamentalist group, Ismail Haniyeh, met yesterday with the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on the occasion of the funeral of President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday. During the meeting, Khamenei renewed the promise of the “cancellation of the Zionist regime”. “The day will come when Palestine will be from the sea to the river,” he said, then showing appreciation for the fact that even in US universities pro-Palestine slogans are chanted and the Palestinian flag is raised.
