Ireland, Norway, and Spain Recognize Palestinian State

Spain, Ireland and Norway have announced that they’ll formally recognize an independent Palestinian state. The Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said that the children of Palestine and Israel deserved peace and that it was the right thing to do. Meanwhile, Spain’s Pedro Sanchez said that there was an obligation to act. While Norway’s Prime Minister said that a two-state solution was in Israel’s best interests. At least 140 members of the United Nations already formally recognize Palestinian statehood others, including the US and the UK do not. Reacting to the news, the Palestinian authority in its rival group, Hamas have welcomed the recognition, urged other nations to follow suit. But Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz said the move endangers his country’s security. He’s recalling the ambassadors to the three countries. While Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris explained his reasoning for the move. Let’s have a listen.

Recognition is an act of powerful political and symbolic value. It is an expression of our view that Palestine holds and should be able to vindicate the full rights of a state, including self-determination, self-governance, territorial integrity and security, as well as recognize Palestine’s own obligations under international law. It is a message to those in Palestine who advocate and work for the future of peace and democracy that we fully respect your aspirations to be living freely, in control of your own affairs and under your own leadership.

The Irish Taoiseach there. Well, let’s have a listen to what the Spanish Prime Minister had to say. Here’s Pedro Sanchez.

The Progressive Coalition government of Spain echoing the majority feeling of Spaniards at large. Next Tuesday on the 28th of May will, at Cabinet meeting, Recognize the State of Palestine. We are going to recognize the State of Palestine for many reasons, which I can summarize in three words: peace, justice, and logic. Peace, because this is the only solution to the conflict, and by that I imply the essential question of the two states, Israel and Palestine, accompanied by mutual security guarantees as many other countries do.

That’s Spain’s Pedro Sanchez speaking earlier in Madrid. Well, earlier I spoke to our correspondent there, Guy Hedgecoe.

Yeah, it’s not a surprise at all. Pedro Sanchez, a socialist prime minister, has been campaigning to try and gather support from his European partners for the support for a Palestinian state for some time now. For several months. He hasn’t managed to persuade the really big countries in the European Union, the major economies to get on board with it. But he has persevered over recent months and he’s been working in particular, alongside Ireland on this. And Pedro Sanchez has consistently been saying that this is a step that has to be taken. It reflects public opinion in Spain, as well as being just the right thing to do. He talked about this being a move based on peace and justice in his speech to Congress today. And he seems to believe that it’s a move which will work as well, given that he has some support from other countries, certainly from Ireland and Norway, in doing this.

That’s Guy Hedgecoe there, well, for more reaction on the day’s developments. Let’s go straight to Jerusalem and join Dan Johnson, who’s there for us. Dan, first of all, just take us through the reaction we’ve been getting from the Israeli government.

The Israeli government is outraged and angered by this move. We’ve had the Foreign Minister, Israel Katz recalling the ambassadors, at least from Dublin and from Oslo, and he’d already threatened that if Spain made the same move as Norway and Ireland, they would face consequences too. He says there’ll be further consequences beyond just recalling the ambassadors. He said, “This is a distorted step which shows the world that terrorism pays.” We’ve had a response from Israel’s Finance Minister as well, who is hinting that he will react to this by refusing to transfer any further funds to the Palestinian authority, which represents Palestinians in the West Bank. There is a feeling that Hamas has been rewarded for the attacks that it carried out on the 7th of October, that that is how this is being seen by some high up in Israeli politics. We’ve just had a statement from Itamar Ben-Gvir, the National Security Minister who said, “The countries that have recognized, a Palestinian state today are giving a reward to murderers and abusers. And I say, we will not allow a declaration about a Palestinian state. I say one more thing; in order to destroy Hamas, we need to get into Rafah all the way that is the city in the south of Gaza. In order to return our hostages, we need to stop the fuel, determine that humanitarian aid only in exchange for humanitarian steps.”

(05:14)
So he’s suggesting the reaction to this should be a step up in military action in Gaza, should be a restriction on aid to make sure that none of it is going to Hamas, and we know already that the aid situation in Gaza has been dire. In contrast, this has been welcomed by the Palestinian authority and by senior figures in the Palestinian leadership. The Palestinian authority said they welcomed the decision taken today by Spain, Norway and Ireland, and they’ve explained that with this important step, these countries have demonstrated their firm commitment to the two-state solution and achieving long-awaited justice for the Palestinian people. They think this moves the Palestinians closer to full recognition, full statehood accepted by all the countries of the world. But the response from Israel is that this damages Israel’s security, undermines Israel’s right to self-defense and does not help the peace process in the long term.

And Dan, all of this comes as we are hearing that the United Nations has halted food distribution in Rafah, due to shortages and hostilities.

Yeah, there’s been a real difficulty getting aid into Gaza, whether that’s over the land crossings, or via the new maritime route that was opened up last week when the US military put in place this floating platform. We know some aid shipments have been able to get in via the sea route and via the land borders, but then there’s a problem of distributing it. There’s been a security issue. Some aid shipments have been ransacked by desperate Palestinians trying to get hold of food supplies and medical treatment, and that’s prompted the UN to actually cease distribution. We know that very little aid has been coming in through that floating platform, despite the huge amounts of money and the effort that was put into putting that in place. They said they’ve got to resolve the security situation, make sure they can fairly distribute aid, make sure that it gets to the people who really need it, that it isn’t intercepted and stolen. So there is a real issue here. The Israelis are being called on to ensure more humanitarian corridor safe routes so that aid workers can get around in Gaza safely, can do their work, can distribute that aid and get it to the people who need it.

Okay. Dan Johnson, thank you very much, for the moment. And of course, we’ve got plenty more on that story on the BBC News website where we continue to run a live page with regular updates on that developing story.