Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Thursday, the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, passed a resolution asking European Union member states to recognize a Palestinian state.
It isn’t the first time that the European Parliament has given support to Palestine recognition, but this resolution is the first directly to call on member states to undertake this step. The resolution passed with 305 votes in favor, 151 against, et 122 abstentions. The wording of the resolution was the subject of protracted and difficult negotiations among several groups of representatives.
The lengthy process had to be interrupted on several occasions to count votes on amendments submitted regarding Gaza. In the end, an attempt to insert language referring to Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza was defeated because in order to get a majority the leftist and green parties needed the assent of the European People’s Party, which hews to a center-right position, and which objected to mention of genocide or man-made famine.
Still, the resolution did contain the language that the parliament “strongly condemns the obstruction of humanitarian aid to Gaza by the Israeli Government, which has caused a famine in northern Gaza,” and that it demands an official inquiry into war crimes and violations of human rights “and for all those responsible to be held to account.” That is a shot across the bow of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his cabinet. The European Parliament, after all, also denounced Philippines President Rodgrigo Duterte back when he was in power, and he ended up on trial at the Hague.
I have to say, however, that if you can’t name and denounce a genocide of the Palestinians, it is unlikely you are going to help create a Palestinian state. The former is much easier to do than the latter.
The parliament also upheld the the remarks made on Tuesday by the president of the European Union Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in which she announced that the EU would suspend bilateral support for Israel, halting all EU payments to the state. She also suspended trade provisions in the EU treaty of association with Tel Aviv, and imposed sanctions on the most far-right extremist members of the Israeli cabinet. In her speech, she denounced the man-made famine in Gaza and an “apparent attempt” by Israel to “forestall a two-state solution.”
Von der Leyen has been one of Israel’s strongest supporters among Western politicians and had been roundly criticized for her insouciance toward Palestinian suffering, so this speech was a huge about-face and a sign that even center-right European politicians have come to the end of their rope on Israel’s campaign against Gaza civilians.
Many European countries are still internally divided over recognition of Palestine. Spain, Ireland and Norway took the step in May 2024 when Israel ignored an International Court of Justice preliminary injunction against committing genocidal acts in Gaza, including invading Rafah, then the last city in the Gaza Strip not reduced to rubble. Slovenia joined them soon thereafter.
The Labour Party under Keir Starmer seems poised to join France in this recognition, as is Malta.
The center-right and the hard right in many European countries are unwilling to recognize Palestine, and where the center-right is tempted, it can be brought up short by hard right allies, as in Finland, Belgium and Portugal.
Ironically, governments with a Soviet heritage had recognized Palestine when they were under Communist rule in 1988, and these have typically not revoked that recognition. These include Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Czechoslovakia (which in 1993 split into Czechia and Slovakia). Cyprus also recognized Palestine in that year, at the height of the first Uprising or Intifada.
Image of European Parliament building, Strasbourg, France, by dimschu from Pixabay
Add to these 7 the four mentioned above who took this diplomatic step in late spring 2024, and we find that 11 of the 27 members of the European Union recognize Palestine. Emmanuel Macron, joining with Saudi Arabia, is making a push to much increase that number at the UN General Assembly meeting this month in New York, where Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will be forced to address the audience by Zoom because he and his delegation were denied visas by Trump’s State Department.
Israel is treated as an honorary member of the European Union, with substantial trade advantages, weapons deals, and technology transfer. Europe is its biggest trading partner. While Europeans have been reluctant alter this relationship, there are at long last signs of movement toward doing so, which could have long-term consequences for Israel’s economy. One thing Israel has on its side in this regard besides the ultra-right European devotion to it as a symbol of white nationalism besieged by brown hordes is the virulent support of the Trump administration, which threatens countries that sanction Israel in any way.
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