Speaker of the Slovenian Parliament, Orska Klakocar Zupancic, said that her country’s step to recognize the State of Palestine would help achieve peace in the Middle East, and would also enable Palestine to establish international relations.
In an exclusive interview with Tel Aviv Tribune, Zupancic expressed her hope that the step would contribute to peace, after Gaza witnessed a massive escalation, stressing that it is time to talk about a ceasefire first and then permanent peace.
She pointed out that if other countries took Slovenia’s step, this would give Palestine strength and strengthen its position and ability to address Israel on an equal footing.
The Slovenian official expressed her great happiness for her country taking the step of recognizing the State of Palestine as an independent, sovereign state, noting that the Palestinian flag was raised in front of Parliament. She also congratulated the Palestinian people on the Slovenian recognition.
She pointed out that “Slovenia shares a history with Palestine after we became an independent country 30 years ago,” adding, “We have experienced before that our country was under the rule of another country, and we feel what the Palestinians feel.”
Regarding the details of recognizing the State of Palestine, the Speaker of the Slovenian Parliament stated that the procedures related to this in her country differ from other countries, as it requires the government to submit the proposal and then the Parliament approves it.
She added, “We faced some procedural obstacles in Parliament, but we overcame them and the decision was passed,” stressing that the procedures had ended, but added that some opposition politicians might resort to the Constitutional Court, indicating that this was baseless.
Yesterday, Tuesday, the Parliament of Slovenia approved, by a majority of votes, a text recognizing the State of Palestine, after the ruling coalition decided to go ahead with the vote and responded to an opposition petition to postpone it.
Last Thursday, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golub announced his country’s recognition of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, which is the fourth country to take such a step within two days after Spain, Norway and Ireland, which raises the number of countries recognized to 147 out of 193 countries in the United Nations General Assembly. United.