THE co-ordinated action by the governments of Ireland, Norway and Spain to announce that next week they would formally recognise the state of Palestine represents a massive political blow to the Israeli regime and to US and UK imperialism.
For the first time, three countries, already members of the 27 states in the EU bloc, have officially recognised the Palestinian state with others indicating they were prepared to follow.
Ireland’s prime minister Simon Harris said that Palestine deserved the same right to be recognised as a sovereign state that Ireland received after fighting a war of independence from Britain more than a century ago and that ‘I’m confident that further countries will join us in taking this important step in coming weeks.’
At last 143 countries around the world recognise the State of Palestine but this is the first time that major western nations have broken with the US-UK axis and Israel to declare recognition.
The announcements by all three governments were carefully choreographed to insist that recognition of the Palestinian State in no way implied support for the Palestinian armed resistance to Zionist occupation and genocide.
Harris said that Ireland was unequivocal in recognising Israel’s right to exist ‘securely and in peace with its neighbours’ before going on: ‘But let me also be clear, Hamas is not the Palestinian people … a two-state solution is the only way out of the generational cycles of violence, retaliation and resentment.’
Norway’s prime minster Jonas Gahr Store in a similar vein said on Wednesday: ‘In the midst of war, with tens of thousands killed and injured, we must keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike: Two states living side by side, in peace and prosperity.’
He added: ‘Recognition of Palestine is a means of supporting the moderate forces which have been losing ground in this protracted and brutal conflict.’
All these assurances that recognition of the Palestinian State was intended to promote the two-state peaceful solution cut no ice with Israeli prime minister Netanyahu.
The immediate response of Netanyahu and his murderous right-wing ‘war cabinet’ gang was to re-call its envoys to Ireland and Norway and denounce plans for Palestinian recognition as constituting a ‘prize for terrorism’.
Meanwhile, the reaction of the US government was to dismiss the actions of Ireland, Norway and Spain, with the US national security advisor Jake Sullivan telling a press conference at the White House on Wednesday that: ‘President Biden has been on the record as supporting a two-state solution. He has been equally emphatic on the record that the two-state solution should be brought about through direct negotiations through the parties, not through unilateral action.’
The Biden administration is confident that it will veto any attempt at recognising the State of Palestine at the UN. It used a veto in April on a resolution at the UN Security Council to grant the State of Palestine full membership of the UN. However, there cannot be a peaceful negotiated settlements along the lines of the old two-state agreement.
The Zionist regime is determined that the only ‘settlement’ it will agree to is one of the complete eradication of Palestinians from their land through a genocidal war of extermination. A war that has killed at least 35,709 people in Gaza since October 7th.
The decision by these three EU countries is of huge importance, however, because it represents a serious rupture amongst the major western nations with Israel and its US backer.
This rupture has been driven by the massive wave of support for Palestine and hatred of the Zionist murder machine by millions of workers and youth across Europe, the US and the UK. This mass movement is turning on their own governments that have given active support to Israel, or at best, just sat on the sidelines observing the destruction of Gaza.
This mass movement is demanding action to stop genocide and it will not be held back. In Britain, the powerful movement of workers in the trade unions and young people must demand the UK immediately recognise the independent State of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.
The TUC must call a general strike to force the UK out of its alliance with Israel and the US and to bring in a UK workers government that will arm the Palestinians and disarm the Zionists to bring in the State of Palestine and put an end to the Israeli mass murder of Palestinians.
