The prime ministers of Spain and Ireland will meet on Friday to discuss a joint plan to recognize Palestinian statehood.
This meeting comes at a time when the death toll in Israel’s war in Gaza has exceeded 33,000.
The rising deaths, hunger and infrastructure in the besieged enclave have led to growing international criticism of Israel. Concern over Israel’s war on Gaza has also led to a change of position within Europe – with more and more nations considering the possibility of recognizing the Palestinian state.
Here you can find out where things are – and how they are changing.
What do Ireland and Spain say about Palestinian statehood?
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will meet Ireland’s newly appointed Prime Minister Simon Harris in Dublin on Friday. Both Spain and Ireland have confirmed in recent weeks that they will recognize a Palestinian state.
This is the first of many meetings Sanchez plans to hold over the next week to rally support for recognizing Palestine.
Sanchez also plans to meet with the prime ministers of Norway, Ireland, Portugal, Slovenia and Belgium, government spokeswoman Pilar Alegria told reporters.
“We want to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and help launch as early as possible a political peace process that will lead to the realization of the two-state solution,” said Alegria.
Over the course of the war, which began on October 7, Ireland and Spain have emerged as Palestine’s biggest supporters in the European Union (EU).
Are others in Europe changing their positions on Palestinian statehood?
At a summit on March 22, the leaders of Ireland and Spain, along with their counterparts from Slovenia and Malta, committed to recognizing a Palestinian state.
Currently, only eight of the 27 EU members recognize Palestine as a state: Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden and Cyprus.
If Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and Malta join, the number of EU members recognizing the Palestinian state will increase to twelve.
However, the EU as a whole does not recognize Palestine as a state – despite multiple diplomatic efforts within the bloc over the years to do so. Some of the EU’s most powerful and influential nations, including Germany and France, take the position that Palestinian statehood should only be recognized as part of a two-state solution with Israel.
Is Europe’s position on war changing in general?
Israel was also criticized by other European countries during the course of the war. On November 10, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo deemed the Israeli campaign in Gaza disproportionate.
“If you bomb an entire refugee camp to eliminate a terrorist, I don’t think it’s proportionate,” he said, but stressed that “Belgium will not take sides.”
A few days later, the Belgian deputy prime minister made a rare European call for sanctions against Israel. And later in November, the prime ministers of Belgium and Spain held a joint press conference in Rafah, on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border, and criticized Israel’s war.
When Israel accused the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) of having links to the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, several countries cut UNRWA’s funding. However, European countries such as Romania, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden continued to support the UN agency.
“We think that cutting funding is the wrong answer because to me it smacks of collective punishment,” Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Al Jazeera.
How does the rest of the world feel about Palestine now?
Israel’s biggest ally, the United States, also recently warned Israel about the planned ground operation on Rafah. It also did not veto the latest UN resolution calling for a ceasefire during Ramadan. However, the US continues to provide military aid to Israel.
Other countries have also increased their support for Palestine. While the South African genocide case against Israel is being heard at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Nicaragua on Monday also brought a case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) calling on Germany to stop supplying arms to Israel.
In total, 139 of 193 United Nations member states recognize Palestine as a state.