“The recognition of the State of Palestine by the Portuguese Government is a measure that is overdue,” stated a communiqué from the PCP.
The PCP highlighted that it has proposed the recognition of the State of Palestine several times in the Assembly of the Republic “for many years,” which was “systematically rejected by successive PSD/CDS and PS governments under various pretexts to prevent Portugal from adopting a decision it was sovereignly entitled to make.”
“However, the PCP unequivocally rejects any demands accompanying the Portuguese Government’s decision that undermine the rights of the Palestinian people, particularly their right to a free and independent state where the Palestinian people can sovereignly decide their fate,” it stated.
According to the PCP, the AD Government decided to recognize the State of Palestine due to “Israel’s escalating atrocities and the open declaration of its colonialist objectives,” as well as due to “the courageous resistance of the Palestinian people and the persistent actions of the solidarity movement internationally, especially in Portugal.”
Referring to Portugal’s coordination of this decision with other United Nations member states like France, the United Kingdom, and Canada, the PCP emphasized that these are Western powers that “refuse to implement the necessary decisions and actions to end the genocide, ensure urgent humanitarian aid, and create the State of Palestine.”
“Western powers that, besides not questioning the continuation of their military, political, and economic support to Israel or condemning its genocidal policy, continue to repress the solidarity movement with the Palestinian people and for peace in the Middle East, as seen in France or the United Kingdom,” it criticized.
The PCP further asserted that “Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people,” with “unprecedented proportions,” are only possible because its “policy of aggression, occupation, and colonization” has, for decades, had the support and complicity of the United States of America and the major powers of NATO and the European Union.
The party advocates that Portugal’s recognition of the State of Palestine should now be accompanied by the “condemnation of the genocide of the Palestinian people by Israel’s Zionist regime” and the promotion of initiatives “aiming for the immediate end of Israel’s crimes, the urgent response to the basic needs of the Palestinian population, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the end of their attacks on the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.”
The PCP further believes that the State of Palestine should be established with the 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital, ensuring the right of return for Palestinian refugees, “as determined by United Nations resolutions for decades.”
Portugal is expected to formally announce the recognition today through a statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel.
