Belgium will recognize the state of Palestine to the United Nations General Assembly (Unga) later this month, announced the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Prevot.
“Palestine will be recognized by Belgium during the United Nations session! And firm sanctions will be imposed on the Israeli government,” Prévot wrote Tuesday, who is also assistant.
Israel will be confronted with 12 sanctions from Belgium, said prevot, in particular the ban on the importation of products from illegal Israeli colonies in occupied West Bank and “an examination of public procurement policies with Israeli companies”.
Prévot, a member of the Centrist commits them to the party, or the committed, said that Belgium was committing to “in the light of the humanitarian tragedy which takes place in Palestine, in particular in Gaza”.
“We have seen the horrible situation on the ground, with people who die of hunger, and it is completely unacceptable. Cutting all humanitarian aid is a war crime,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
He added that the decision also came in the wake of the revival of Israel of the illegal E1 regulation project in the occupied East Jerusalem and illegal settlement expansions “to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution”.
Recognition must be with “no condition”
The Belgian Foreign Minister, however, said that recognition would only be formalized once the last captive has been released from Gaza and that “Hamas no longer has a role in the management of Palestine”.
“From an intellectual point of view, the recognition of a state should be without conditions. But we must also manage the different sensitivities within the Belgian coalition. We are five parts, and we are not necessarily aligned,” said Prevot.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the announcement of Belgium and called on other countries to follow “to intensify practical efforts to stop crimes of genocide, travel, famine and annexation, and to open a real political path to resolve the conflict”.
In a press release on X, the ministry said it considered the decision “in accordance with international law and the United Nations resolutions, and the protection of the two -state solution and support for peace”.
The Israeli government did not immediately publish an official declaration.
But Avigdor Lieberman, the head of the Israeli opposition Yisrael Beiteinu, says that Belgium’s decision is a “direct result” of the “political failure” of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Due to Netanyahu’s inability to manage the political arena, a Palestinian state is established before our eyes,” said Lieberman in an article on X.
“Belgium’s decision to join recognition and moving sanctions is another direct result of its political failure,” he added.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever, of the new Flemish Alliance party, said last month that Palestine’s recognition should be linked to strict conditions, according to Belga’s Belga news agency.
At the end of July, President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would recognize the Palestinian state when world leaders would meet for Unga.
Although Belgium’s decision to recognize the Palestinian state may seem like a simply symbolic act, there is a great momentum across Europe, said the Hachem Ahelbarra of Tel Aviv Tribune, reported by Brussels.
“This means that each European country which says” I therefore recognize Palestine “will recognize the sovereignty of the independent Palestinian state with borders which existed before 1967, including the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and the complete establishment of diplomatic relations with the Palestinian State.”
While more and more European countries continue to recognize Palestine, “this will exert more pressure on Luxembourg and Italy in particular” to follow up on.
France and Saudi Arabia co-organize the meeting on Palestinian recognition during UNGA on September 22. Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom also said they planned to recognize Palestine this month, also with conditions.
A problem with the declaration put forward by France and Saudi Arabia to the UN, which calls the Palestinians and the Israelis to discuss the future of the two -state solution, convinces many Arab countries that Hamas should be dismantled once the war in Gaza, said Ahelbarra.
The question is whether this consensus will be reached, because it is clear from “each declaration from European countries, that is to say for them (dismantling of Hamas) a prerequisite for complete recognition of the Palestinian State,” said Ahelbarra.
In April of this year, some 147 countries, representing 75% of UN members, had already recognized the Palestinian state.
Israel and the United States have firmly criticized the countries that have moved to recognize Palestine, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing France’s announcement as a “reckless decision” which “only serves Hamas propaganda”.
Rubio has since announced that the administration of US President Donald Trump would denote and revoke the visas for Palestinian officials before UNGA in New York.
The Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, warned last year that a new illegal Israeli colony would be established in the occupied West Bank for each country that recognizes Palestine.
Smotrich is one of the two far-right Israeli ministers faced with sanctions from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Occupied Palestinian territory, implored that the countries take measures to end the War of Israel against Gaza, including by imposing sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel.
The 12 new sanctions announced Tuesday by Prévot seem to be of greatest nature, although they relate mainly to the illegal Israeli colonies in the West Bank.
Last month, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp resigned after declaring that he could not obtain support from the cabinet for additional “significant” sanctions against Israel in the middle of his brutal war against Gaza.
On August 22, an instructor supported by the UN officially declared that famine occurs in the northern gang of Gaza and should spread in the central and southern regions by the end of September.
Belgium’s decision to recognize Palestine comes as the War of Israel against Gaza killed at least 63,557 people and injured 160,660 others.
In July, Belgian prosecutors gave up a complaint against war crimes against two Israeli soldiers at the International Criminal Court (ICC), following allegations that they participated in atrocities in Gaza.
