Ireland, Norway and Spain to recognise Palestinian state

May 23, 2024 News

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BBC NEWS – Ireland, Norway, and Spain have announced they will formally recognise a Palestinian state from 28 May.

Spain and Ireland said the decision was not against Israel nor in favour of Hamas, but rather in support of peace. Israel reacted angrily, warning the move would mean more instability in the region and recalling its ambassadors to all three countries.  Both Hamas and its rival, the Palestinian Authority, have welcomed the recognition.  Norway was first to make its announcement Wednesday in a move co-ordinated with the other two countries.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in an address that the move was “in support of moderate forces that are on a retreating front in a protracted and cruel conflict”. “This is an investment in the only solution that can bring lasting peace in the Middle East,” he added, referring to the so-called two-state solution which would see an Israeli and a Palestinian state existing peacefully next to each other.

Ireland and Spain followed suit soon after.

“Today, we state clearly our unambiguous support for the equal right to security, dignity, and self-determination for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples,” Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin said. The country’s Prime Minister Simon Harris later stressed that “Hamas is not the Palestinian people”. “Today’s decision to recognise Palestine is taken to help create a peaceful future,” he said. Mr Harris’s comments were echoed by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who said the move was “not against Israel, is not against the Jews”.

“It is not in favour of Hamas which is something that has been said. This recognition is not against anyone, it is in favour of peace and coexistence.” Israel reacted to the announcements with fury. Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he was ordering the immediate return of the Israeli ambassadors to all three countries for “consultations”. “Israel will not go over this in silence – there will be other serious consequences,” he said. Mr Katz also said that the three countries’ ambassadors in Israel will be summoned for “reprimand talks”, during which they will be shown a video of the abduction of female Israeli soldiers on 7 October.

Hamas, which controls Gaza and is currently at war with Israel, said Wednesday’s announcements would be a “turning point in the international position on the Palestinian issue”.  In a statement to AFP, Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas figure, said the “brave resistance” of the Palestinian people was behind the move. Hamas’s rival, the Palestinian Authority (PA) – which controls parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank – said Norway, Spain and Ireland had demonstrated their “unwavering commitment” to “delivering the long overdue justice to the Palestinian people”. Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military approved the return of Israeli citizens to the sites of three settlements in the occupied West Bank, which they had been banned from entering since 2005.

Israel’s parliament had voted to allow its citizens to return in March last year, but military permission was needed for the bill to be enforced. Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. The issue of Palestinian statehood has vexed the international community for decades.  Since the 7 October attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has doubled down on his opposition to such a plan, saying the creation of a Palestinian state would compromise Israel’s security.

Mr Netanyahu added on Wednesday that the creation of a Palestinian state would lead to repeat attempts of 7 October and denounced the move by Norway, Spain and Ireland as a “prize for terrorism”. About 1,200 people were killed in the unprecedented attacks on 7 October, when Hamas gunmen burst into Israel. They took 252 others back to Gaza as hostages. Since then, more than 35,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel’s Gaza offensive, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Most of the world already recognises the state of Palestine. Earlier this month, 143 of the 193 members of the United Nations General Assembly voted in favour of it joining the UN, something only states can do.

Before Wednesday’s announcements, only nine European countries supported Palestinian statehood and most of those took the decision in 1988 when they were part of the Soviet bloc. Most other European countries, and the US, still believe recognition should come only as part of a long-term two-state solution to the conflict. A White House spokesperson said US President Joe Biden was a “strong supporter” of the two-state solution, and believed “a Palestinian state should be realised through direct negotiations, not through unilateral recognition”. Slovenia and Malta have also said recently that they were considering a formal recognition. Norway’s prime minister also said on Wednesday that he hoped the recognition of Palestinian statehood by the three countries would bring renewed momentum to the peace talks. Long-running negotiations in Cairo aimed at securing a truce and further hostage releases are currently stalled.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate. Earlier this week, the UN said food distribution in the southern Gaza city of Rafah had been suspended due to a lack of supplies and insecurity.  The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) recently applied for arrest warrants for Mr Netanyahu and Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, for war crimes. Both Israel and Hamas have condemned the move. Israel says an offensive in Rafah is needed to eliminate Hamas but the international community has warned against it, saying it will greatly exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.ries until new routes could be identified. Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s cross-border attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 252 others were taken hostage. More than 35,640 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

After seven months of war in Gaza, Israel has insisted victory is impossible without taking Rafah and eliminating the last remaining Hamas battalions there. But the UN and Western powers have warned that an all-out assault could lead to mass civilian casualties and a humanitarian catastrophe. On 6 May, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ordered residents of eastern Rafah to evacuate for their own safety before it began what it called “precise operations” against Hamas operatives and infrastructure.

Since then, troops have advanced into central neighbourhoods and taken control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. The crossing remains closed, while the UN says the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel is too dangerous to access. On Monday, Israel’s Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, declared that it was “committed to broadening the ground operation in Rafah”.

Unrwa said in a report on Tuesday that it had been forced to suspend food distribution because the Israeli operation had left its distribution centre and a WFP warehouse inaccessible. When asked about the ramifications, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York: “People don’t eat.” It is not clear how many people are still living in the Rafah area. But the head of Unwa implied it was more than 800,000 on Sunday, when he said that “nearly half of the population are on the road”.

The IDF has told them to head to an “expanded humanitarian area” that stretches from nearby al-Mawasi to the central town of Deir al-Balah and said they will find field hospitals, tents, food and other supplies. However, the UN has said nowhere is safe in Gaza and that the designated area is already crammed with people and does not have clean drinking water supplies and sanitation facilities.

The IDF said on Tuesday that its soldiers were continuing “targeted raids on… terrorist infrastructure and buildings” in eastern Rafah, and that it had “eliminated dozens of terrorists” who tried to approach them.

Another statement said it was facilitating “the passage of hundreds of trucks containing food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment” across Gaza. It reported that 381 aid lorries were transferred via Kerem Shalom on Tuesday and that another 70 entered northern Gaza via the Erez West crossing. But it also noted 650 lorry loads remained waiting for collection by aid agencies at the two crossings. As well as saying that Kerem Shalom is difficult to access safely, the UN has noted that areas in the vicinity of Erez West are under other Israeli evacuation orders. A UN-backed assessment published in March warned that 1.1 million people in Gaza were facing catastrophic levels of hunger and that famine was imminent by May in northern Gaza, where an estimated 300,000 people are trapped.

No formal famine declaration has been made, but WFP executive director Cindy McCain said earlier this month that “there is full-blown famine in the north, and it’s moving its way south”.

On Friday, the first lorry loads of aid rolled off the US military’s floating pier south-west of Gaza City, which US officials have said will “surge humanitarian assistance”. US Central Command announced early on Tuesday that 569 tonnes of aid had been delivered by cargo ships that sailed from Cyprus. But later in the day, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj Gen Pat Ryder told reporters in Washington that none of those supplies had yet been distributed by humanitarian organisations. Mr Dujarric said contractors were able on Friday to drive 10 aid lorries from the pier to a WFP warehouse in the central town of Deir al-Balah. But the next day 11 of the 16 lorries which set off were intercepted by hungry crowds.

“These trucks were traveling through areas where there’d been no aid,” Mr Dujarric said. “I think people feared that they would never see aid. They grabbed what they could.” Gen Ryder said there had been discussions among the US, Israel and the UN “to identify alternative routes for the safe movement of staff and cargo”.

“We do anticipate that assistance will be distributed in the coming days, of course, conditions permitting,” he added. Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization warned that the largest partially functional hospital in northern Gaza was reportedly hit four times on Tuesday, as battles rage between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in the nearby Jabalia area.

The IDF said it was reviewing reports from medics at Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia that its emergency department had been struck by Israeli missiles, forcing them to rush patients on hospital beds to a street outside. The WHO also said al-Awda hospital in Jabalia had been besieged since Sunday, with staff, patients and people accompanying them trapped inside.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled Jabalia since 11 May, when the IDF said it would re-enter the area because Hamas had regrouped there.

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• Hamas, Ireland, Norway, Palestinian, Spain

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