Why Norway, spain, ireland recognise palestine as a State?
Israel’s airstrikes in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on sunday that killed at least 35 Palestinians come hours after Hamas launched a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv for first time in months since the october 7 attack. The latest strikes come after Norway, spain and ireland formally recognised palestine statehood based on the pre-1967 borders. According to the Palestinian Authority, which has limited powers in parts of the occupied West Bank, 142 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations already recognise a state of Palestine. They include many Middle Eastern, African and Asian countries, but not the US, Canada, most of western Europe, Australia, japan or South Korea. Currently, seven members (Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, poland and Romania) of the 27-nation european union officially recognise a Palestinian state. Five of them are former east bloc countries who announced recognition in 1988, as did Cyprus, before joining the bloc. sweden announced recognition in 2014.
The Czech Republic, an EU member, says the 1988 recognition by the former Czechoslovakia — of which it then formed a part — does not apply to the modern state. Slovakia’s Foreign Ministry that the two sides confirmed their recognition as slovakia was becoming independent in 1992-93, and that the Palestinian state has a fully-functioning embassy in Bratislava since 2006. Some EU members such as malta and slovenia may also recognise palestine as a state. On october 31, 2011, the UN cultural agency UNESCO voted to accept the Palestinians as a full member. In september 2015, the Palestinian flag was raised for the first time at the United Nations in New York after the General Assembly. In April, the US used its veto at the United Nations Security Council to prevent a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member state.
The UN General assembly voted by a significant margin on May 11 to grant new “rights and privileges” to palestine in a sign of growing international support for a vote on full voting membership. The Palestinian Authority currently has observer status.
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