Sweden has officially recognised the state of Palestine, Stockholm’s foreign minister has said, less than a month after the government announced its intention to make the unprecedented move.
The Palestinians cheered Thursday’s move, while Israel recalled its ambassador to Sweden for consultations…
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said in a statement that the recognition was “an important step that confirms the Palestinians’ right to self-determination”.
“We hope that this will show the way for others,” she said in remarks published in the Dagens Nyheter daily.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hailed the “brave and historic” move to officially recognise the state of Palestine, his spokesman told the AFP news agency.
Sweden is the first EU member state in Western Europe to recognise the Palestinian state.
Seven EU members in eastern European and the Mediterranean have already recognised a Palestinian state – Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, and Romania.
Non-EU member Iceland is the only other western European nation to have done so…
The United States expressed dismay – from their usual position next Israel in bed. Nothing new. They only know one position.
Our government’s willingness to ignore historic professions of support for national liberation, anti-colonialism, opposition to oil-based imperialism reaches new depths of hypocrisy.
Bravo! Always admire nations standing up for the oppressed.
PARIS (11/28/14): French lawmakers on Friday debated a nonbinding motion to recognize a Palestinian state, following similar moves in other European nations amid increasing criticism and frustration of Israeli policies.
The motion, initiated by the governing Socialist Party, is expected to pass comfortably when it is put to a vote in the lower house of Parliament on Tuesday. It invites France to “recognize the state of Palestine” in order to “reinforce our country’s diplomatic action, prevail over hate speeches everywhere and contribute to the establishment of peace in the Middle East.”
Even if it is in favor of the motion, the vote would remain symbolic and nonbinding for the French state. But France would become the fourth European nation to take such a symbolic step in support of Palestinian sovereignty amid increasing criticism of Israeli settlement policies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/29/world/europe/french-lawmakers-debate-recognizing-palestinian-state.html Includes interactive feature that illustrates ‘Challenges in Defining an Israeli-Palestinian Border’