The Significance of Ireland, Spain, and Norway’s Recognition of a Palestinian State

Time ^ | 5/22/24Ga | Yasseen Serhan

[DallasBiff]

Since 1948, Palestinians living in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza have remained effectively stateless, caught in the limbo of a decades-long peace process that has yielded neither peace nor a state to call their own. But on Wednesday, three European countries—Ireland, Norway, and Spain—announced their decision to officially recognize a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The decision is set to go into effect on May 28.

Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Simon Harris, who announced the decision in a press conference, likened Palestinians’ bid for self-determination to the Irish people’s history seeking international recognition of their independence in 1919. “Today, we use the same language to support the recognition of Palestine as a state,” he said, noting that he expects further countries to join them “in the coming weeks.”

[Petrosius]

The West Bank so called was originally part of Jordan. They lost it in the 1967 war.

Actually the West Bank and Gaza were the remnant of what, according to the UN partition plan, was suppose to be the Arab half of a divided Palestine. After the Israeli War of Independence the West Bank was administered by Jordan but never incorporated into the kingdom. But the point, though, is that there is a Arab population living in the West Bank that is not going to go away. Israel has two choices, either annex it and grant citizenship to the Arabs, or surrender it to the Arabs living there as an independent country.

I know that both options would be hard on Israel but the continued unresolved occupation is not sustainable. It only radicalized the Arab population more. Notice that this radicalization is not happening with the Israeli Arabs, nor with the Jordanians and Egyptians. It has been more than 50 years since Israel captured the territories. It is time for a final settlement: either two separated states for the Jews and the Arabs (the original UN partition plan) or one for both populations.