On Wednesday 22 May, Spain, Ireland and Norway announced their coordinated decision to recognise the State of Palestine in the hope of injecting new momentum into the search for a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 7 months after the outbreak of war between Israel and the Islamist organisation Hamas. This decision will take effect as of 28 May.
“We must keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike: two States, living side by side, in peace and security”, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told the Spanish Congress of Deputies, quoted by AFP. He made a “strong appeal” to other countries to join this initiative.
The two-State solution is “the only credible path to peace and security for Israel and Palestine”, said his Irish counterpart Simon Harris from Dublin.
At the end of March, in the margins of the European Council, the Irish, Maltese, Spanish and Slovenian leaders announced their joint desire to recognise the State of Palestine (see EUROPE 13377/19).
On 9 May, the Slovenian government adopted a decree for the recognition of a Palestinian State, with the intention of sending it to the national parliament for approval by 13 June.
According to the Palestinian Authority, 142 of the 193 UN Member States have recognised Palestine to date. Since 2014, Sweden has been the only EU Member State to have done so. Six other countries - Bulgaria, Cyprus, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania - had done so before joining the EU. France considers that the conditions are not in place for such recognition, as this initiative would have to come at the end of negotiations on the contours of a viable Palestinian State.
On Wednesday, the Israeli authorities said that the three countries’ initiative risked turning them into pawns manipulated by Iran and Hamas, rewarding terrorism and reducing the chances of a negotiated political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The European Commission has still not replied to the letter from the Spanish and Irish leaders asking it to check whether, in the war it is waging against Hamas, Israel is complying with its human rights obligations under its bilateral association agreement with the EU (see EUROPE 13350/1). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)