Italian PM Calls Recognizing Palestinian State Before its Establishment ‘Counterproductive’
After the French President’s surprise plan of recognizing the Palestinian state in September, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday that the recognition of the state before its establishment could be ‘counterproductive’.
Italy Prioritizes Establishing Palestinian State
Meloni said that she supported the Palestinian state, but she is not in favor of recognizing it prior to establishing it, according to Al Arabiya.
“If something that doesn’t exist is recognized on paper, the problem could appear to be solved when it isn’t,” she told Italian daily La Repubblica.
Meloni’s remarks came after French President Emmanuel Macron announced his plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.
On Friday, Italian Foreign Minister revealed that recognizing a Palestinian state must align with recognition of Israel by the new Palestinian entity.
UK Faces Mounting Pressure to Declare Recognition
Meanwhile, the British PM has been facing mounting pressure to officially recognize Palestinian statehood, both from opposition lawmakers and from members of his own Labour Party government.
On Friday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held an “emergency call” with France and Germany to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The joint statement, issued after a call between Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, urged for an immediate ceasefire and said that “withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable.”
Crucially, approximately 60 British Labour MPs have recently urged the UK government to immediately recognize the Palestinian state and halt what they labeled as “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, according to The Guardian.
Germany Takes Different Path
On the contrary, Germany is not planning to recognize the Palestinian state in the short term, according to Reuters.
A German government spokesperson said on Friday that his country’s top priority now is to make “long-overdue progress” towards a two-state solution.
Germany’s position on Israel in the context of the Gaza war is deeply shaped by its sense of special responsibility to atone for the Holocaust, during which six million European Jews were killed under Hitler’s regime between 1933 and 1945.
Since the beginning of Hamas-Israel War in Gaza in 2023, the Israeli strikes have killed more than 57,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 137,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
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