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Portuguese Parliament recommends that the government recognize the State of Palestine

Portuguese Parliament recommends that the government recognize the State of Palestine

The Portuguese parliament today approved by a large majority a recommendation to the government to recognize the State of Palestine, “in close coordination with close partners within the European Union”.

The final text of the draft resolution, presented by the parliamentary committee on Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities, recommends that the executive, “within the framework of the peace process, take the appropriate and necessary steps so that Portugal can recognize, in close coordination with close partners within the EU, the viable and sustainable State of Palestine”.

The initiative, which is the result of the PS, PAN and Livre projects, was voted for today by the PS, PSD, Liberal Initiative, Left Bloc, PAN and Livre, against by Chega and abstained by the PCP, in a plenary vote in the Assembly of the Republic.

The resolution calls for a “fair and mutually accepted division of territory” in order to ensure that Palestine “can live side by side with the recognized State of Israel in peace and security, excluding any terrorist organization as a representative of the Palestinian people”.

Currently, of the 193 countries in the United Nations, 139 recognize the State of Palestine. Of the 27 member states of the European Union (EU), eight do so: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Slovakia, Hungary, Malta, the Czech Republic, Romania and Sweden.

In the resolution approved today, parliament urges the government to use its “diplomatic resources” and “international influence” to “bilaterally and in international forums where Portugal has a seat, particularly in the EU Council of Foreign Ministers, defend an international position that leads to the recognition of Palestine as an independent state”.

Portugal must also defend respect for United Nations resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “especially those that condemn and prohibit the construction of new settlements in the West Bank”.

The final text of the resolution was agreed in the special committee, after the Free had scheduled a debate on the “two-state solution and recognition of Palestinian independence” for the plenary on December 18.

On that occasion, eight resolutions were voted on, without the force of law, and the initiatives of the Left Bloc and the PCP, which recommended that the government recognize the State of Palestine, were rejected.

Speaking to Lusa at the end of November, the Minister for Foreign Affairs said that the recognition of the State of Palestine “is something that must happen”, but in coordination with “some close partners” and at a “moment with consequences for peace”.

“We look at recognition not as something that can happen, but as something that must happen, although the right moment for it to happen is still undetermined,” said João Gomes Cravinho, referring to the position of the head of the Spanish government and then president of the Council of the European Union (EU), Pedro Sánchez, who admitted the possibility of Spain recognizing the Palestinian state unilaterally, outside the EU and other member states of the community bloc.

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