Recognition brings independence closer: Palestinians
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Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin says countries recognising a Palestinian state this week are taking an irreversible step that preserves the two-state solution and brings Palestinian independence and sovereignty closer.
Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada formally recognised a Palestinian state on Sunday, joining other countries in a move aimed at reviving momentum for a two-state solution but which has been criticised by Israel and the United States.
“Now is the time. Tomorrow is a historic date we need to build on. It’s not the end,” Shahin told reporters in Ramallah.
“It is a move bringing us closer to sovereignty and independence. It might not end the war tomorrow but it’s a move forward, which we need to build on and amplify,” she said, referring to Israel’s nearly two-year military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has sharply criticised the step, with some ministers dismissing it as irrelevant, saying it does not change the realities on the ground.Â
Others have insisted that a Palestinian state can only be achieved through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
Before the announcement, about 140 other countries had already backed Palestinians’ aspiration to forge an independent homeland from the Israeli-occupied territories.
The UK’s decision carried particular symbolic weight given its major role in Israel’s creation as a modern country in the aftermath of World War II.
“Today, to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution, the United Kingdom formally recognises the State of Palestine,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on X.
Other countries, including France, are expected to follow suit this week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this month declared there would never be a Palestinian state.
Israel’s foreign ministry said on Sunday in response to the announcement that recognition of Palestinian statehood is “nothing but a reward for jihadist Hamas”.
“Hamas leaders themselves openly admit: this recognition is a direct outcome, the ‘fruit’ for the October 7 massacre,” the ministry posted on X, without explicitly naming Australia, the UK and Canada.
“Don’t let Jihadist ideology dictate your policy,” the post concluded.
Shahin said that Israel had no intention of negotiating, citing Netanyahu’s remarks at a ceremony this month to build a new settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that would cut off northern Palestinian communities from those in the south.
“This recognition is certainly not symbolic. It is a practical, tangible, irreversible step that countries must take if they are invested in preserving the two-state solution,” Shahin said.
France and Saudi Arabia have led efforts to revive momentum for the two-state solution, with several countries to recognise a Palestinian state this week at the UNGA in New York.
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has dismissed the efforts as a stunt and counterproductive.Â
Israeli officials have hardened their positions on settlement construction and West Bank annexation as international momentum for Palestinian statehood has grown.
Israel has faced growing diplomatic isolation this year as many of its closest allies, with the exception of the US, have condemned its assault on the Gaza Strip.Â
Some have sanctioned Israeli ministers for inciting violence against Palestinians.
Shahin said political pressure on Israel must shift to economic measures “to hold Israel accountable and protect the Palestinian people”.
“Today, Gaza burns. Today, Gaza is destroyed. Today in Gaza, people are systematically murdered,” Shahin said, accusing Israel of perpetrating genocide in the enclave, an allegation Israel denies.
A United Nations Commission of Inquiry last week said that it had concluded that Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, a finding also reached by a scholars’ association, two leading human rights groups in Israel and Amnesty International.
Reuters
