Borrell: Spain, Ireland to recognize Palestinian state on May 21
Spain, Ireland and other European Union member countries plan to recognize a Palestinian state on May 21, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said late on Thursday ahead of an expected UN vote on Friday on a Palestinian bid to become a full member.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in March that Spain and Ireland, along with Slovenia and Malta, had agreed to take the first steps toward recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, seeing a two-state solution as essential for lasting peace.
Asked on local Spanish radio station RNE if May 21 was when Spain, Ireland and other EU countries would recognize a Palestinian state, Borrell said yes, mentioning Slovenia as well.
“This is a symbolic act of a political nature. More than a state, it recognizes the will for that state to exist,” he said, adding that Belgium and other countries would probably follow.
Previously, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares had said the decision on recognition had been made, although he did not give a date. International calls for a cease-fire and permanent end to Palestinian-Israeli conflict have grown along with the death toll from Israel’s offensive in Gaza since Oct. 7.
On Friday the United Nations General Assembly was to back a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it as qualified to join and sending the application back to the UN Security Council to “reconsider the matter favorably.”
Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE said on Thursday that Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Malta had been waiting for the UN vote and were considering a joint recognition on May 21.
Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said earlier this week his country would recognize Palestine’s statehood by mid-June.
Since 1988, 139 out of 193 UN member states have recognized Palestinian statehood.
Suspending Israeli ties
Meanwhile, Spanish universities expressed willingness Thursday to suspend ties with any Israeli educational institution that failed to express “a clear commitment to peace” as the war rages in Gaza.
Student protests have gathered pace across Western Europe in recent weeks with protesters demanding an end to the Gaza bloodshed and to cut ties with Israel, taking their cue from demonstrations that have swept US campuses.
In a statement, the university chancellors’ governing board (CRUE) denounced the violence and threw its support behind the protests that have recently popped on Spanish campuses.
Demanding an immediate end to Israel’s actions in Gaza, they pledged “to review ties and if necessary, suspend collaboration with Israeli universities and research centers that haven’t expressed a firm commitment to peace and respect for international humanitarian law.”
The Gaza war, wich began on October 7, has sparked a wave of pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked US campuses for weeks in an intensity not seen for decades, with the movement then spreading to cities in Europe and even Australia.