Recognition of Palestine is ‘whitewashing Europe’s crimes,’ local pro-Palestine groups say

While Israel strongly denounced the decision of several European countries to recognize the “State of Palestine” as a reward for terrorism, local pro-Palestinians in Spain, Ireland, and Norway rejected these declarations as unsatisfactory, some even regarding them as whitewashing “European complacency” with Israeli “crimes.”

In Spain, the official accounts of the student encampments in Madrid and Barcelona rejected the Spanish government’s declaration. “The recognition of the Palestinian state whitewashes European [Nations] while they continue to sell weapons to those who are massacring [the Palestinians],” the group said. It also demanded “a complete severance of relations with Israel” and vowed to “continue fighting until the end of Zionist colonialism.”

Al-Yudur, a group affiliated with PFLP front Samidoun, shared a thread claiming, “This symbolic recognition is important but it is insufficient, especially in the current context of Gaza. Palestine needs more than a gesture. The breaking of cultural, academic, economic relations...of our government with Israel would be a much more useful first step because we know that it does work (because it worked in South African apartheid) and that the Palestinians and the solidarity movements do ask for it.”

Ana Sánchez, speaking on behalf of the Solidarity Network Against the Occupation of Palestine (RESCOP), another Spanish group, was also unimpressed by the Spanish government’s declaration. In an interview with Canal Red, she said, “We would have loved to wake up to the news that our government has cut its ties with a genocidal, apartheid, and colonial regime… The recognition of a state does not imply the solution to all the decades-long systemic infringements of the Palestinian people’s rights.”

Sánchez also denounced the fact that Spain will continue to hold diplomatic, economic, and cultural relations with Israel and even sell arms “to those who oppress the state which we just recognized,” likening the declaration to a “wet piece of paper.”

'End EU-Israel agreement'

Irish and Norwegian groups

also expressed doubt vis-à-vis the recent announcements made by their governments. The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), one of the leading pro-Palestinian organizations in the Republic of Ireland, did not refer at all to the decision to recognize Palestine directly, but rather posted a tweet, reading: “The Irish government should now sanction apartheid Israel for its crimes against the Palestinian people. End all trade with Israel. Enact the Occupied Territories Bill and Divestment Bill. End US military use of Shannon. Call for an end to the EU-Israel Agreement.”