“I thank the deputies, including those from the opposition, for having approved by an enormous majority my proposal to reject the unilateral dictation of the creation of a Palestinian State…”, the Israeli Prime Minister began to say this Wednesday in Parliament, Benjamin Netanyahu, when Ahmad Tibi, leader of the Arab Taal party, interrupted him shouting from his seat: “A Palestinian State will be created! Despite your words, it will be created!” After two warnings, he was expelled.
In this environment, the Knesset has given the green light to a text, presented by Netanyahu and unanimously approved by his concentration government, which rejects both the “international dictates on a permanent agreement with the Palestinians” and the unilateral recognition of the State of Palestine, which the UN General Assembly granted the status of non-member observer country in 2012. “Such a declaration after the October 7 massacre would give a huge, unprecedented reward to terrorism and prevent any future peace agreement,” he says. Of the 120 deputies, 99 of different political parties have voted in favor of its resolution and only nine against, from Arab parties.
Netanyahu explained the importance of his initiative on Monday: “In recent days, we have seen a new form of international pressure: an attempt to unilaterally force the establishment of a Palestinian state on us.” The foreseeable massive support, he ventured, “will make it clear to the world that there is a very broad consensus within Israel against international attempts to force us into a Palestinian state that would endanger the existence of the State of Israel. “We reject it completely.” The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement in which it describes the decision as “invalid, illegitimate and illegal” and emphasizes that the recognition of the State of Palestine by other countries or full membership “does not require Netanyahu's permission.”
If the Knesset has addressed the issue this Wednesday, a decade after the vote in the United Nations, it is precisely because the war in Gaza has rescued those two ideas from the closet: the need to promote the two-state solution, after years of defense over the role for the international community; and – more timidly – the recognition of the Palestinian State, which has a mainly symbolic dimension. Israel calls it unilateral because it does not occur within the framework of a negotiated peace agreement.
Currently, 139 of the 193 United Nations member states recognize the State of Palestine, with a clear division between the West – which generally does not – and the rest of the world, including two permanent members of the Security Council: China and Russia. Palestine has observer status because full membership depended on a yes vote from the Security Council. It was not even voted on due to the certainty that at least the United States would veto it.
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Several national parliaments of EU countries, such as Spain, then approved motions to recognize it. In the end, Sweden was the only community country that did so after entering the Union, but it did not generate the domino effect that was expected. She was left alone and the momentum ended up diluting.
Now, Spain is considering emulating it alone. “We would like to do it with the greatest possible consensus within the EU, but, of course, we do not rule out anything.” […]. Spain is a sovereign State and makes its decisions sovereignly,” Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said last month in Parliament.
Hoax
What was really worrying, however, this Wednesday in the Knesset was information, later denied, that the great American ally – which this Tuesday vetoed for the third time a ceasefire proposal in Gaza at the UN after more than four months of war – was considering recognizing the Palestinian State within the framework of a plan to promote peace in the region. It could be seen in the intervention in Parliament by the former prime minister and head of the opposition, Yair Lapid, when he explained his position to Netanyahu: “I have no problem voting in favor. We are against unilateral measures, [pero] You have invented a threat that does not exist. […] My ties with the US Administration are better than yours and it is a hoax. “There is no official actor in the world that proposes unilateral recognition of the Palestinian State.”
The other idea that has gained traction is the need to take seriously the two-state solution to end the Middle East conflict. The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, even says that “it must be imposed from abroad.” Netanyahu rejects her, as he recalled last Monday, by boasting of having stopped her during his political career, although he defended her verbally, under pressure from the then president of the United States, Barack Obama: “Everyone knows that I was the one who for decades it has blocked the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
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