Eduardo González
As announced, the Council of Ministers today approved the recognition of the State of Palestine, a decision that, according to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, declared hours before, “is not against anyone, least of all against Israel”, and represents “a resounding rejection of Hamas, which is against the two-state solution.”
“At today’s meeting of the Council of Ministers, the Government of Spain will recognize the State of Palestine,” said Sánchez during the reading of an institutional declaration, in Spanish and English, at the Moncloa Complex.
“Spain will thus join the more than 140 countries that already recognize Palestine as a State,” he continued. “This is a historic decision with a single objective: to help Israelis and Palestinians achieve peace,” he said.
According to the head of the Executive, “the time has come to move from words to action”, since, “no matter how many walls are built, no matter how many towns are bombed and no matter how many illegal settlements are built, the land and the identity of Palestine will continue to exist.”
“The State of Palestine is not only a matter of historical justice, it is a necessity if we want to achieve peace,” he insisted. “A Palestinian State that coexists with that of Israel. The State of Palestine must be viable with Gaza and the West Bank connected by a corridor and with East Jerusalem as its capital,” he continued. In this sense, he warned, Spain’s opinion “is in line with the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council” and, therefore, “we will not recognize changes in the 1967 border lines that are not those agreed upon by the parties.”
“It is essential that Palestine see its place in the international community recognized,” he declared. “Palestine as a State is a decision that we do not adapt against anyone, much less against Israel, a friendly people, whom we respect, whom we appreciate and with whom we want to have the best possible relationship,” he continued. What’s more, he assured, this decision represents a “flat rejection of Hamas, which is against the two-state solution.” “Spain condemned the terrorist attacks of October 7 from the first moment,” he recalled.
“Starting tomorrow,” he continued, Spain will make “every effort to make the two-state solution a reality” and, to this end, it has set “two priorities”: putting an end to the unprecedented crisis in the Gasa Strip, to which, “once again,” made a “call for a permanent ceasefire, the entry of food aid and the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas,” and “assist the Palestinian Authority in the reform process” currently underway. “The Palestinian Authority is a partner for peace and has our full support,” he said.
Likewise, he continued, “we will continue to promote cooperation with Arab partners” and “join efforts so that the International Peace Conference can be held to make the two-state solution a reality once and for all.”
According to Sánchez, “this decision by Spain is based on respect for international law and the defense of the rules-based international order, whatever the context, in Gaza, Palestine or Ukraine.” “We assume responsibility in the search for peace, security and prosperity of all peoples, in accordance with the preamble of the Spanish Constitution” and “we will act in accordance with what is expected of a great country like Spain,” he concluded.
Albares
In the press conference after the Council of Ministers, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, stated that Spain has recognized the State of Palestine because it was “the time to do so.” “We can’t wait any longer, we have had decades of violence, pain, destruction,” he stated. “The entire international community, including Israelis and Palestinians, know perfectly well that the solution to the conflict in the Middle East involves a two-state solution. “Israel and Palestine living together in peace and security,” he added.
“This morning 143 countries had already recognized the Palestinian State. Today, with Spain, together with Norway and Ireland, we are 146, and very soon, others, like Slovenia, which will do so this Thursday, will join us,” he continued. This is “a very large majority of the international community, to which, without a doubt, more countries will continue to join,” he added. “Also, the place and existence of Israel must be recognized by those who have not yet done so,” because “this is the only path to peace,” he warned.
Albares also assured that the Government’s decision “reflects the will of the Spanish Parliament, which on November 18, 2014 approved a non-legal proposal in favor of the recognition of Palestine as an independent State” and recalled that, on May 10, “Spain co-sponsored and voted along with 142 other countries,” in the UN General Assembly, “in favor of Palestine becoming a full member of the United Nations.”
When asked why leading EU countries, such as Germany, France or Italy, have not taken this step, Albares responded that he has “no lesson in legality or humanity to give to any European Government, they will carry out the analyzes they consider,” but, he reiterated, “Spain is among the overwhelming majority of countries in the world” that have made that decision. “There were already eight EU countries that recognized the State of Palestine, the last being, in 2014, Sweden,” and in the recent Security Council vote on the inclusion of Palestine as a full member of the UN (which was vetoed by the US), “all EU states that are members” of this body voted in favor.
Regarding the relationship between Spain and Palestine as of this day, Albares warned that the Government’s decision “implies recognizing Palestine as a subject of International Law for all purposes, and the effects are immediate and have begun to take effect this morning from the moment the recognition occurred.”
“Spain had previously established diplomatic relations with Palestine,” he recalled. Palestine already has “a diplomatic mission” and the status of the Palestinian ambassador in Madrid is “head of mission, he already had the maximum status.” “Diplomatic relations with the Palestinians will continue to be carried out through the diplomats of the Spanish Consulate in Jerusalem, as do many other countries that have recognized Palestine,” he assured.
This clarification inevitably forced Albares to comment on the order of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Israel Katz, by which the Spanish Consulate in Jerusalem will be prohibited from carrying out consular activities or providing consular services to residents of the Palestinian Authority as of June 1.
“These threats are not going to intimidate us at all, nor are they going to divert me from my objective of working with the rest of the countries in the world to bring peace to the Middle East,” the minister warned. In any case, he specified, the matter is in the hands of “the international legal advice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the entire team in charge of relations with the Middle East.” “I want to remind everyone that there are Vienna Conventions on diplomatic relations and consular relations, that there are privileges and immunities that Spain scrupulously respects with all the countries of the world, with its embassies and consulates, and we demand based on to International Law the same respect,” he added.
Albares also announced that Spain, Ireland and Norway (the three countries that recognized Palestine today) have agreed to give “a coordinated, but also calm and firm response” to “the provocations and despicable hoaxes” launched by the Israeli Foreign Minister. against these three countries.
This response will be made “at the appropriate time, when we decide and not when others decide, because, probably, they would be interested in talking about tweets, instead of the decisions of the International Court of Justice, international legality, the ceasefire, humanitarian aid and also the release of the hostages,” he added. “We do not make a reactive foreign policy with a tweet, we decide when we act, we never overact, we do not act when others want us to do so with provocations,” he said.
José Manuel Albares will receive tomorrow in Madrid the Arab Contact Group for Palestine, which “applauds the Spanish decision to recognize the Palestinian State,” according to diplomatic sources. Specifically, Albares will meet with Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahaman bin Jassim Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar; Mohammad Mustafa, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority; Ayman Safadi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan; Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al Saud, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia; Hakan Fidan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Türkiye; and the Secretary General of Islamic Cooperation, Hussein Ibrahim Taha. The Egyptian minister, who is traveling in China, will visit Spain next Monday. Today, Tuesday, Minister Albares will also hold a bilateral meeting with the Jordanian minister and a dinner with the Saudi minister.
PP, Díaz, Israel
Following the Government’s decision, the Deputy Secretary of Culture and spokesperson for the PP, Borja Sémper, declared to Antena 3 that the recognition of Palestine has occurred at a “particularly inopportune” moment, as “is being proven” by the “reaction of our partners and with the position established by the Government of a democratic country such as Israel.”
For her part, the second vice president and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, has described this step as “historic,” which is “key” to moving towards peace in the Middle East, but warned that the recognition of Palestine “is not enough.” ” and the Government should go “further”, including the call for consultations of the Spanish ambassador in Tel Aviv, the complete embargo on the sale of arms with Israel and the adherence to South Africa’s complaint in the International Criminal Court for genocide in Gaza.
In his first reaction after the decision of the Spanish Government, Israel Katz compared Yolanda Díaz with the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, and with the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and stated that Pedro Sánchez, “by not firing Yolanda Díaz and announcing the recognition of the Palestinian State is complicit in inciting the murder of the Jewish people and war crimes.” Recently, Katz attacked Díaz after the vice president published a video in support of the recognition of the Palestinian state in which she stated that “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea,” a slogan used by numerous Palestinian groups (including Hamas) that have been interpreted as absolutely contrary to the very existence of the State of Israel.
Senate
In the afternoon, the issue of Palestine generated a new clash between Albares and PP in the Senate, after the popular senator José Antonio Monago criticized the Government for having made the decision without taking it to the Cortes “so that this could be voted on.” ” and denounced, along the same lines as the leader of his party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, that the Government uses Palestine “as a decoy to divert attention from cases of corruption that affect the Government and the PSOE.” In his opinion, this decision “harms the Palestinian people and polarizes the Spanish” and, at this time, “strengthens Hamas.” “No matter how early they get up, they anger the Democrats and applaud those who kidnap young people and murder them,” he added.
In his response, Albares denounced that the PP “not only leaves the consensus of the European Union on the recognition of the State of Palestine, but also openly embraces the theses of the most radical members of the Netanyahu Government.” “I am very sorry that the PP has rejected that consensus and has opposed that decision that embraces the fundamental desire of the people and has done so by renouncing what both José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy supported at the time, when they were presidents, and included in the electoral program of the PP, in reference to the two-state solution,” he stated. Feijóo himself supported him “when he was president of the Xunta de Galicia,” he concluded.
