Madrid/Tel Aviv, May 28, (dpa/GNA) – Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognized a Palestinian state on Tuesday in a coordinated effort denounced by Israel.
The trio announced last week the recognition would come into force on Tuesday, a watershed moment that broke with decades of previous policy and showed the diplomatic chill Israel finds itself in.
The act has powerful symbolic value given that most other Western European countries take the position that Palestinian statehood can only come after direct negotiations between the parties.
“This decision of Ireland is about keeping hope alive. It is about believing that a two-state solution is the only way for Israel and Palestine to live side by side in peace and security,” Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said in a statement.
“We had wanted to recognize Palestine at the end of a peace process however we have made this move alongside Spain and Norway to keep the miracle of peace alive.”
The Irish government said full diplomatic relations between Dublin and Ramallah will be established. This includes appointing an ambassador of Ireland to the state of Palestine.
In Madrid, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Spain took the major step “to help the Israelis and the Palestinians achieve peace.”
He said it was not for Spain to decide the precise borders of another country’s state, but that “the West Bank and the Gaza Strip must be connected by a corridor, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
He said his government is opposed to the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and strongly condemns the attacks the militants launched on Israel on October 7.
However, recognition is “the only way to a two-state solution.”
Norway began formally recognizing an independent Palestine shortly after midnight.
“For more than 30 years, Norway has been one of the strongest advocates for a Palestinian state. Today, when Norway officially recognizes Palestine as a state, is a milestone in the relationship between Norway and Palestine,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement.
Eide said that the recognition was a clear expression of support for the moderate forces among Israelis and Palestinians. He also criticized Israel’s approach the Palestinians.
“It is regrettable that the Israeli government shows no signs of engaging constructively. The international community must increase its political and economic support for Palestine and continue the work for a two-state solution,” he said.
The majority of United Nations member states recognize the state of Palestine. However, influential Western nations such as the United States, Britain, and most EU states do not.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz lashed out at the Spanish prime minister, writing on Tuesday on X that Sánchez was “complicit in inciting the Jewish genocide and war crimes.”
Katz was referring to a recent video in which Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz said Palestinians would be free “from the river to the sea.”
The slogan is considered anti-Semitic because it expresses the Palestinian claim to sovereignty from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which would mean Israel does not exist. From the Israeli point of view, it is a call for the expulsion or killing of Jews in the state of Israel.
Spain has long been one of the harshest critics in Europe of Israel’s military action in the Gaza Strip. The left-wing government suspended all arms exports to Israel in October. It also recently decided to deny all cargo ships loaded with weapons for Israel entry to Spanish harbours in future.
Momentum for recognizing Palestinian statehood has grown in several European countries as the war that began on October 7 with the Hamas attack on Israel, which left some 1,200 people dead and another 250 others taken hostage, drags on.
Critics and allies of Israel have shown increasing frustration as the war continues to claim lives in Gaza amid mass displacement in the territory and worsening humanitarian conditions.
The Hamas-run health authority says more than 36,000 people have been killed so far. GNA