Irish PM: 'If Palestine isn't recognized now, later may be too late'

The unilateral recognition of Palestine by Ireland, Spain, and Norway formally took effect on Wednesday amid calls by the three governments for other Western countries to follow suit.

“The viability of the Palestinian state” is “hanging by a thread,” Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris told his country’s lower parliament on Tuesday.

“If [other] countries do not now take this formal step to recognize Palestine, I fear there may not be the opportunity in the future. Now is the time to act. The [pre-]1967 borders have slowly been eaten away. And this cannot continue,” he stated.

Israel has sharply criticized the recognition claiming that it rewards Hamas for its October 7 invasion of Israel, in which over 1,200 people were killed and another 252 were seized as hostages and taken to Gaza.

Last week Israel recalled its envoys from those three countries for consultations and it summoned the Irish, Spanish, and Norwegian Ambassadors to the Foreign Ministry to watch a video of five of the hostages taken at the moment of their capture by Hamas.

Harris charged that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s was the “most right-wing” government  in the country’s history, noting that it has said it “will never accept a Palestinian state.”

Harris stressed that he was “disappointed” by Israel’s reactions and its treatment of the Irish, Spanish, and Norwegian ambassadors.

Israel “has wrongly, wrongly, wrongly sought to portray” unilateral Palestinian statehood recognition “as a reward for terrorism and a boost for Hamas. This could not be further from the truth,” he said.

Ireland has rejected Hamas and condemned the October 7 attack, he said, adding that “Hamas can bring nothing but pain and suffering to the people of Israel and the people of Palestine.

“We’ve long called for an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages, for urgent and unhindered access to Gaza for humanitarian aid,” Harris said.

“We wish nothing for the people of Israel, but security, peace, and friendship. That’s what we wish for the people of Palestine,” he said.

“We’re not naive. We know that recognition of Palestine alone will not resolve a conflict between Israel and Palestine,” but “it can make a real and meaningful contribution.

“We must be on the right side of history. It is a single step in a long and difficult path. A path Ireland is ready to walk with the people of Palestine towards a future where there are two states – Israel and Palestine – living side by side in peace and security together,” he said.

Spain agrees

In a televised address Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that the unilateral statehood recognition was the only way to advance the two-state solution.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz attacked Sanchez in a post on X, stating that “when you... recognize a Palestinian state, you are complicit in incitement to genocide against the Jewish people and in war crimes.”

The move means 146 of the 193 member states of the United Nations now recognize a Palestinian state, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said.

Of the 27 members of the European Union, Sweden, Cyprus, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria have already recognized a Palestinian state. Slovenia is expected to approve recognition on Thursday and Malta has said it could follow.

Britain and Australia have said they are also considering recognition, but EU member France has said now is not the time, while Germany joined Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States, in rejecting a unilateral approach, insisting that a two-state solution can only be achieved through dialog.

Denmark’s parliament on Tuesday voted down a bill to recognize a Palestinian state. France’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday suspended a deputy from the hard-left Les Insoumis (LFI) party for 15 days for waving a Palestinian flag in the National Assembly, bringing proceedings to a halt for about an hour.

“This is not tolerable,” National Assembly President Yael Braun-Pivet said as she suspended the session and excluded deputy Sebastien Delogu whose deputy’s pay was also halved for two months.

Delogu told reporters. ”I waved the Palestinian flag in the National Assembly ... because as I speak, France sells weapons, sells parts to supply the Israeli army,” Delogu told reporters. “There is a genocide going on there.”

Reuters contributed to this report.