Speaking to MPs in congress on Wednesday, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez announced that his socialist-led coalition government would recognise the state of Palestine on 28 May.
Speaking to MPs in congress on Wednesday, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez announced that his socialist-led coalition government would recognise the state of Palestine on 28 May.
He said his government rejected what he termed “the massacre in Gaza and the rest of the Palestinian territories” and reiterated its demands for a ceasefire and the implementation of the two-state solution.
But he also said the time had come for concrete action.
“Prime minister Netanyahu is still turning a blind eye and bombing hospitals, schools, homes,” said Sánchez. “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 prosecutors at the international criminal court have this week sought his arrest for war crimes.”
The Spanish prime minister said that he was in no doubt whatsoever that Netanyahu had “no peace plan for Palestine”, adding that he was causing so much pain, destruction and bitterness in Gaza and the rest of Palestine that the two-state solution was now in serious danger.
“Those countries that defend human rights and rule-based international law are obliged to act – in Ukraine and in Palestine – without double standards,” said Sánchez.
He said:
We’re obliged to do what we can: sending humanitarian aid, as we are; helping refugees and displaced people, as we are.
But we also have to use all the political resources at our disposal to say, loud and clear, that we’re not going to allow the possibility of the two-state solution to be destroyed by force because it’s the only just and sustainable solution to this terrible conflict.
And that is why I wish to inform you that after discussing the decision with the two parties that make up this progressive coalition government – and in keeping with the feelings of the majority of the Spanish people – Spain’s cabinet will approve the recognition of the Palestinian state on Tuesday 28 May.”
His words were met with huge applause in Spain’s lower chamber.