Norway, Ireland, and Spain’s leaders say they will recognise a Palestinian state

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez delivers a speech to announce that Spain will recognise Palestine as a state on 28 May at the Congress of Deputies in Madrid on 22 May 2024. (Thomas Coex / AFP)

• Norway, Ireland and Spain said on Wednesday that they
  will recognise a Palestinian state.
• Norway and Spain’s official recognition will take effect
  on 28 May, while Ireland did not specify a date.
• In response, Israel immediately announced it was
  recalling its ambassadors from Ireland and Norway for consultations.

Norway,
Ireland and Spain announced on Wednesday that they will recognise a Palestinian
state, prompting Israel to recall its envoys immediately.

Ireland’s
leader said his nation would recognise Palestine as a state but did not specify
a timing, while Norway’s and Spain’s leaders said their nations would do so as
of 28 May.

Norwegian
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store made the announcement in Oslo, Spain Prime
Minister Pedro Sanchez in Madrid and Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris in
Dublin.

Israel
immediately announced it was recalling its envoys to Ireland and Norway for
“urgent consultations”.

“Today,
I am sending a sharp message to Ireland and Norway: Israel will not go over
this in silence,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement, adding
that he planned to do the same with he Spanish ambassador.

The Israeli
foreign ministry had earlier posted a video message addressed to Ireland on the
social media platform X, warning that “recognising a Palestinian state
risks turning you into a pawn in the hands of Iran and Hamas”, adding the
move would “only fuel extremism and instability”.

Israel has
said plans for Palestinian recognition constitute a “prize for
terrorism” that would reduce the chances of a negotiated resolution to the
war in Gaza, which began on 7 October when Hamas militants stormed into
southern Israel.

‘Only
alternative’

But Norway
– which has played a key role in Middle East diplomacy over the years, hosting
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at the beginning of the 1990s, which led to the
Oslo Accords – said recognition was needed to support moderate voices amid the
Gaza war.

“In
the midst of a war, with tens of thousands killed and injured, 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,” Store said.

“Recognition
of Palestine is a means of supporting the moderate forces which have been
losing ground in this protracted and brutal conflict,” he said.

ROLLING COVERAGE | LIVE: Norway, Ireland and Spain to recognise Palestinian state. In response, Israel recalls envoys

He added,
“This could ultimately make it possible to resume the process towards
achieving a two-state solution and give it renewed momentum.”

Spain’s
Sanchez said in parliament in Madrid: “Next Tuesday, 28 May, Spain’s
cabinet will approve the recognition of the Palestinian state,” he said,
adding that his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu was putting the two-state
solution in “danger” with his policy of “pain and
destruction” in the Gaza Strip.

And
Ireland’s Harris hailed a “historic and important day for Ireland and for
Palestine.”

For
decades, the formal recognition of a Palestinian state has been seen as the
endgame of a peace process between Palestinians and their Israeli neighbours.

The United
States and most Western European nations have said they are willing to one day
recognise Palestinian statehood, but not before agreement is reached on thorny
issues like final borders and the status of Jerusalem.

But after
Hamas’s 7 October attacks and Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza, diplomats
are reconsidering once-contentious ideas.

In 2014,
Sweden, which has a large Palestinian community, became the first EU member in
western Europe to recognise Palestinian statehood.

It had
earlier been recognised by six other European countries: Bulgaria, Cyprus, the
Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

Hamas’s 7
October attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1 170 people, mostly
civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Hamas also
took 252 hostages, 124 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are
dead.

Israel’s
retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35 647 people in Gaza, also mostly
civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.