The recognition of the state of Palestine by Madrid, Dublin, and Oslo will mean that 146 of the UN’s 193 member states now recognise Palestinian statehood.
Three European nations are set to formally recognise a Palestinian state, joining China, India, Russia and most of the countries in the global south.
Speaking at the Moncloa Palace, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that the recognition of Palestine “is not only a matter of historical justice, but we are all aiming at establishing peace”.
“The only route towards establishing peace is the establishment of a Palestinian state, living side by side with the state of Israel,” he said.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa has welcomed the move, and hoped for a continuation of “this momentum of recognition”.
“We want to have every country in Europe to do the same,” he said on Sunday, in a press conference with Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares in Brussels.
He also said that recognition of a Palestinian state addresses “the injustice that has been inflicted on the Palestinian people for decades”.
Symbolic declaration
Tuesday’s move by Spain, Ireland and Norway will mean 145 of the UN’s 193 member states now recognise Palestinian statehood.
Spain and Ireland will be the largest and most politically influential nations in the European Union bloc to recognise a Palestinian state, joining Sweden, Cyprus, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.
While the declaration is mostly symbolic, Sanchez hopes that the momentum will give more strength to impose a ceasefire, following nearly eight months of a brutal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed 36,000 Palestinians and decimated the blockaded enclave.
Ireland’s cabinet is expected to affirm the decision after several hours of debate this morning in parliament.
Speaking on Monday, Ireland’s Prime Minister Simon Harris said: “We believe in the state of Israel and in the state of Palestine, living side by side in peace and stability. And we believe it at a time when others are seeking to bomb that hope to oblivion.”
For its part, Norway is not an EU member but often aligns its foreign policy with the bloc. Over the weekend, it handed out diplomatic papers to the Palestinian government ahead of its formal recognition of a Palestinian state.
Israeli reaction
Israeli has recalled its envoys from Madrid, Oslo, and Dublin, with its foreign ministry saying that recognising Palestine will “fuel extremism”.
It also forced the three ambassadors to watch videos of Israelis being taken hostage by Hamas gunmen, and blocked Spain from providing consular services to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the recognitions are an attack on Israel’s sovereignty and endanger its security.
In response, Spain has escalated criticism, describing the war on Gaza as a “real genocide”.
In a post on X, Katz X, wrote that the Spanish government is “being complicit in inciting genocide against Jews and war crimes”.
But Sanchez has repeatedly condemned the actions of Hamas on October 7, after it launched a lightning offensive on Israeli military bases and the towns and settlements surrounding Gaza that killed about 1,000 Israelis.
The decision to recognise Palestine reflects “our absolute rejection of Hamas”, he said on Tuesday, describing the group as a terrorist organisation that rejects the two-state solution.
Hamas revised its charter in 2017, and presented a new political document that accepts the formation of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.
