Last month in Brussels, Tánaiste Micheál Martin hosted a dinner on the margins of the EU meeting of foreign ministers.
Ministers from Spain, Belgium, Slovenia and Malta attended the dinner. The subject matter was the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza and what these five like-minded EU countries could do to help the peace initiative talks in the Middle East progress to achieve a ceasefire.
There was another item that was to the forefront of the politicians’ minds at the dinner, and one which Martin wanted to push. That was to act in concert to push for formal EU recognition of the State of Palestine.
The formal EU position is that it will recognise the Palestinian state when it is established as part of the two-state settlement set out by the Oslo Accord three decades ago. This would provide for two states within the territory, with the borders being those that were there pre-1967, the year Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza during the Six-Day War.
However, this group of EU countries is now of the view that they can no longer wait for the Oslo Accord to be implemented and that Palestinian statehood should be recognised even in the absence of a two-state solution.
That view is beginning to gather pace within the European Union and the European Economic Area.
In what turned out to be co-ordinated moves on Tuesday, Mr Martin told the Dáil that further delays in recognising the Palestinian state was “not credible or tenable any longer”.
He said he would bring proposals to Government on this matter soon. “But be in no doubt recognition of a Palestinian state will happen,” he said.
At around the same time, the Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez announced that he would hold separate discussions this week with Norway, Ireland, Portugal, Slovenia and Belgium to try to recognise Palestine. He said he wanted recognition for Palestine by July.
The Tánaiste’s disclosure of these moves effectively stole some of the thunder from Simon Harris’ big day on Tuesday but needed to be done on that day. He also said that the talks on this specific change have been ongoing for about six months.
There have been signs for some months that this will happen. At the Summit meeting in March, the leaders of Ireland, Malta and Spain said they “stood ready” to recognise Palestinian statehood.
Their argument was that the recognition of the State was necessary for any future peace process. A month earlier then taoiseach Leo Varadkar had confirmed that a group of member states were in talks to give formal recognition to Palestine. He said that with Palestine having the status of a state, it would allow “a more equal negotiation to happen”.
In a wider context, this forms part of participation by some of these countries in the overall peace initiative in the Middle East designed to bring the conflict in Gaza to an end. Ireland’s engagement began with its efforts to get Irish citizens trapped in Gaza through the Rafah Crossing. The Tánaiste has met senior Government figures in Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in recent months and he and the department have contributed to the wider peace efforts.
Martin told the Dáil last month that Ireland was actively engaged with regional partners on the finalisation of a peace plan currently being developed by a core group of Arab states.
“I discussed this with the Jordanian and Palestinian foreign ministers in the Munich security conference and senior officials from my department have travelled to the region in recent weeks at my request to further consult key partners on the details of this plan and how Ireland, with a number of European partners, could support this initiative,” he said.
Martin’s move on Tuesday was also giving effect to a Programme for Government commitment to recognise the State of Palestine “as part of a lasting settlement of the conflict, or in advance of that, when we believe doing so will progress efforts to reach a two-State solution or protect the integrity of Palestinian territory”.
Government sources said on Wednesday that Ireland believes it is best to take that step in concert with other countries, and not unilaterally. This group of states will put the matter on the agenda of both the next European Council meeting in April and also on the agenda of the next meeting of foreign ministers.
“We want to keep the momentum up. There is a growing determination to do this tied to the peace initiative. We want a concrete proposal [for recognising Palestine] to be put,” said the sources.
The sources concede that some EU countries will not be willing to recognise the Palestinian state. Countries like Germany, Austria, Hungary and Greece remain strong supporters of Israel notwithstanding the substantial toll of deaths and casualties caused by its bombardment of Gaza. It is more likely that a subgroup of EU countries will move of their own volition to recognise Palestine by July.
The political difficulties caused by this issue within the EU is not evident in most other parts of the world. Of the 193 members of the United Nations, 139 recognise the State of Palestine, while nine of the 27 EU member states already recognise the Palestinian right to statehood.
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