Spain Parliament to vote on recognition of Palestinian state

Spain's Parliament will next week be voting as to whether the country will recognize Palestine as a state. This after Sweden unilaterally recognized the Palestinian state and the UK and France are symbolically looking in that direction.

Pro-Palestinian Rally in Fuengirola, Spain - Photo courtesy Anne Sewell, Spanish News in English

Spain's foreign minister José Manuel García-Margallo said on Thursday that should the current peace negotiations between Israel and the currently-occupied Palestinian state not come to light, parliament will be debating the issue in its lower house.

The move comes after a push by the PP's main opposition party, the PSOE, on the issue. The socialist party wants the government to "recognize Palestine as a State," pointing out (no doubt due to failed attempts in the past) that the only way a lasting peace agreement between Israel and Palestine could be possible is with the "coexistence of two states."

The PSOE also said that the country's recognition of Palestine should be carried out in a "coordinated manner with the European Union."

According to sources of the El País newspaper, Spain's foreign minister is "not against" these plans.  García-Margallo said that he would not be in favor of a purely "symbolic" recognition of the Palestinian state and that issues relating to setting up borders between the two states would need to be addressed before the full recognition could take place.

"Spain will recognize Palestine when we believe it will favor negotiations or when we believe those negotiations aren't moving ahead," he told the media on Thursday.

Israel has already criticized this move, with Emmanuel Nahshon, spokesman at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, saying the Spanish motion “is not useful,” and that "it sends Palestinians the message that they don’t have to negotiate with Israel to get their state."

El País reports that 300 figures from Israel’s political left requested Spain to lead the effort in getting Palestine recognized as a state.

Two weeks ago, the Swedish government officially and unilaterally recognized Palestine, and was the first EU member to do this.  However, Hungary and Poland had recognized Palestine prior to joining the EU bloc. As for the UK and Ireland, they have recently passed symbolic motions towards the recognition of the Palestinian state.

Protest in Fuengirola denounces 'genocide' in Ukraine and Palestine (Video)

More than one hundred people publicly denounced the situation in both Palestine and Ukraine in a demonstration Tuesday on the beachfront of Fuengirola, Spain. The writer was on the scene, camera in hand.

The event was organized by La Agenda Roja, an anti-fascist group that stands for the social, political and labor movements in Málaga, Spain, and saw many nationalities joining together to protest, including Spaniards, Palestinians, Belgians, South Africans, Syrians, Moroccans and Swiss.

In their handout, the group speaks of “the creation of the fictional state of Israel,” and how thousands of victims have been killed in the “Zionist genocide” since then. They mention how the offensive has intensified during July, leaving more than 400 Palestinians (including women and children) dead and over 1,500 wounded in the walled enclave, with little medical equipment left and without electricity in the hospitals.

The handout mentions that unlike Palestine, the struggle in Ukraine is characterized by internal conflict. It talks of how in late 2013, the extreme right came into power and immediately began to outlaw leftist parties and began persecuting ethnic minorities. Since then thousands have been injured or killed in what has become an ongoing civil war.

Protesters at the event denounced both situations as nothing but maneuvers of international capitalism by NATO, the US and the EU, saying that as they did in the twentieth century, imperialism continues to safeguard its interests.

Chants were heard including "This is not war, it is genocide," and "arise the struggle of the people of Palestine," among others.

One protester gave an impassioned plea on video (which can be seen below), the transcript of which is as follows:

“The media is at fault with their fake news, calling the Palestinians terrorists, but we're not stupid, thanks God and thanks for the social media. So people can see what's going on now and the truth about what Israel is doing to kids, to women and to Palestinian people that have no guns, they have nothing, they are defenseless.

"People who hear this on the Internet are going to have some love inside of their hearts and humanity. Because we are here for humanity, we are not here for religion. This is very important. We are here screaming out and shouting to the world that they have to stop this genocide and this massacre because it’s not fair. Absolutely not fair. And I hope people will see that.”

Other Palestine news in Europe:

• Impassioned plea to world leaders from Norwegian doctor working in Gaza
• Europe airs concern on Gaza onslaught, aid offered by Denmark 
• What is the Israeli/Palestinian situation actually all about?