Spain’s Parliament may be next to recognize Palestine

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Flag of Spain

MADRID (WJC) — The Spanish legislature will hold a vote on the recognition of a Palestinian state. Lawmakers from the opposition Socialist Party have proposed a non-binding resolution text which is to be debated and voted on next Tuesday.

According to media reports, the governing Popular Party of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will support the motion, which would give it a large majority in Congress. The Spanish vote follows a similar initiative by the British parliament a few weeks ago. Ireland also approved a motion to recognize a state of Palestine. While these resolutions were not binding for the respective governments, the Swedish executive’s decision to recognize Palestine as a state was.

French lawmakers will vote on 28 November on a proposal by the Socialist Party urging the government to recognize Palestine as a state, media reported on Wednesday. A draft of the proposal states that the lower house National Assembly “invites the French government to use the recognition of the state of Palestine as an instrument to gain a definitive resolution of the conflict.”

France will “obviously at a certain moment recognize the Palestinian state,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told AFP on Saturday. “The question is when and how? Because this recognition must be useful for efforts to break the deadlock and contribute to a final resolution of the conflict.”

The CRIF, France’s umbrella body of Jewish organizations and communities, said the draft resolution risked exacerbating anti-Semitic hatred in the country. The organization urged French lawmakers to refrain from voting in favor of the motion. “In France, after the anti-Semitic riots this summer, this declaration will certainly not be interpreted as a peace initiative and risks exacerbating the anti-Semitic tensions which we saw last summer,” reads the CRIF statement on the planned vote.

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Preceding provided by the World Jewish Congress