The three European leaders have repeatedly said that the two-state solution remains the only answer to the crisis in the Middle East.
“Today, Ireland, Norway, and Spain are announcing that we recognise the state of Palestine”
Ireland Prime Minister Simon Harris announced his country’s decision to officially recognise the state of Palestine on May 22 pic.twitter.com/qMvb7cgvCd
— TRT World (@trtworld) May 22, 2024
In a coordinated response, the Irish, Spanish and Norwegian government made the long-awaited announcement on Wednesday morning that they said were intended to support a two-state solution and restore peace in the Middle East, triggering an immediate response from Israel, which recalled its ambassadors from Dublin and Oslo.
Palestine ravaged by Israeli strikes has lost key pieces of architecture instrumental for providing basic services like food, medicine, and shelter to its depleting population. Sharing exasperation over Israel’s continued military operations in Northern and Southern layer of Gaza Strip has provoked condemnation from international institutions. Since 1988, 139 of193 UN member states have recognized Palestinian statehood. The Irish government has previously said recognition would complement peace efforts in Middle East.
“We are going to recognize Palestine for many reasons and we can sum that up in three words – peace, justice and consistency.” Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez told the parliament in Madrid, earning applause. “We have to make sure that the two-state solution is respected and there must be mutual guarantees of security.”
Ireland said Palestine had a legitimate right to statehood. “It is a statement of unequivocal support for a two-nation solution, the only credible path to peace and security for Israel, for Palestine and for their peoples,” he told a press conference in Dublin. “I’m confident that further countries will join us in taking this important step in the coming weeks.”
Palestinian statehood will guarantee peace
The developments come amid a grinding seven-month war in Gaza that has sparked global calls for a ceasefire and lasting solution for peace in the region, as well as pursuit of arrest warrants on war crimes charged by the international criminal court. About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed by Hamas on October 7th, with a further 250 taken hostage, and about 35,000 people have been killed in the war in Gaza as a result of an offensive by Israel’s military, according to Palestine health ministry.
Spain PM, Pedro Sanchez accused Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for presiding over massacres and reiterated demands for a ceasefire. “Prime minister is still turning a blind eye and bombing hospitals, homes, schools. He is still using hunger, cold and terror to punish more than a million innocent boys and girls – and things have gone so far that the prosecutors at the international criminal court have this week sought his arrest for crime wars.”
Sanchez has been one of the most outspoken European leaders when it comes to criticism of Israel’s offensive in Gaza. He has also repeatedly said the two-nation solution remains the only answer to the crisis in the Middle East. While condemning Hamas’s shocking acts of terrorism and acknowledging Israel’s right to defend itself, two-nation theory supporters have infuriated Israeli government by called the number of dead Palestinians “truly unbearable”, and emphasizing that Israel’s response cannot include the deaths of innocent civilians, including thousands of children.
What is the two-state solution?
At its simplest, two-nation solution is the idea that creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel would end the crisis. There would be two states on the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The two-nation solution has become the most widely accepted policy internationally, even as Israelis and Palestinians increasingly see it as an impossibility.
Despite international affirmation, implementation of this policy is not an easy task. The Israeli occupation is the key issue that prevents Palestinians from forming their own state. Israel took control of the Palestinian territories – Gaza, the West Bank, and the East Jerusalem in 1967 and Palestinians have lived under military rule ever since. Internationally mediated efforts from the 1990s onwards have failed to change the status quo.
Even if the occupation were to end, there is little land on which Palestinians could build a state. An Israeli settlement movement in the Palestinian territories now numbers about 700,000 people. Even if Israel were to be pressured to end its military rule, Palestinians themselves are deeply divided, with groups such as the internationally recognized Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) endorsing the two-state policy, while the Islamist movement Hamas seeks the destruction of Israel.
Many Palestinians and Israeli now advocate one-state policy in which a binational secular state is created but Israel government sees this as unacceptable as it would be the end of the Jewish state, as they would not have a demographic majority. Palestinians and their supporters say the current situation is in effect a “one-state reality”, but one in which Israel has the ultimate control.
