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palestinian statehood
Spanish PM Urges NATO Leaders to Eschew 'Double Standards' on Gaza and Ukraine
"If we demand respect for international law in Ukraine, we must demand it in Gaza as well," asserted Pedro Sánchez.
Jul 11, 2024
While joining leaders of fellow NATO countries in voicing support for defending Ukraine from Russian aggression, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Wednesday implored Western nations to avoid "double standards" in the application of international law regarding Israel's war on Gaza.
Sánchez, a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party who has led his country since 2018, said during the NATO Public Forum in Washington, D.C. that Western leaders must have "consistent political positions" on Ukraine and Gaza.
"If we are telling our people that we are supporting Ukraine because we are defending the international law, this is the same that we have to do toward Gaza... say that we are backing the international law, especially the international humanitarian law," Sánchez said, drawing applause from the audience.
We cannot have double standards in our approach to Ukraine and Gaza - international law must be upheld in both situations, Prime Minister of Spain @sanchezcastejon said in his conversation with GMF Trustee Steve Biegun at the NATO Public Forum. pic.twitter.com/VdNa4laImY
— German Marshall Fund (@gmfus) July 10, 2024
"We need to create the conditions for an immediate and urgent cease-fire," the prime minister stressed. "There is a real risk of escalation to Lebanon."
Sánchez urged his fellow NATO leaders to do everything they can to "stop this terrible humanitarian crisis" in Gaza and called for an international conference for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
In late May, Spain, Norway, and Ireland formally recognized the state of Palestine, brushing off Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz's threat of "severe consequences" for the three nations. Earlier that month, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution supporting full U.N. membership for Palestine.
Nearly 150 of the world's 193 nations now officially recognize Palestinian statehood, with more considering the move amid what South Africa and dozens of other nations say is Israel's genocidal war on Gaza. Last month, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares announced that his country had applied to join the South African-led genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
As the ICJ determines whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, the tribunal has ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts in the embattled enclave, to "immediately halt" its offensive in Rafah, and to stop blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza in the face of worsening "famine and starvation."
Israel has been accused of flouting all three orders.
In November, Ione Belarra, then Spain's minister of social rights, called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes. In May, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said he is seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity including extermination and using starvation as a weapon of war. He is also pursuing arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders for alleged extermination, rape, and other crimes.
According to Palestinian and international agencies, Israel's nine-month bombardment, invasion, and siege of Gaza has left more than 137,500 Palestinians dead, injured, or missing. Around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced. The majority of homes and other structures in the embattled strip are destroyed or damaged. Children are starving to death amid a severe shortage of food, water, and medical treatment.
Israel's war—which is a response to the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel that left more than 1,100 Israelis dead and over 240 people from Israel and other countries kidnapped—has sparked ongoing protests around the world, including in Spain.
In November, the city councilors in Barcelona, Spain's second-largest city, voted to suspend relations with Israel in a resolution asserting that "no government can turn a blind eye to genocide."
Sánchez isn't the first political leader to call out the West's double standards on Gaza and Ukraine.
"Two years ago, when Americans across the country rallied to offer support and aid to Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression, so did we," Abdullah Hammond, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan—home to the highest Muslim population per capita in the U.S.—wrote in a February New York Times guest opinion essay decrying the Biden administration's "unwavering" support for Israel.
"There are still blue and yellow flags fading against the facades of homes and businesses across my city," Hammond added. "But when Dearborn residents flew the Palestinian flag this past fall, they were met with threats."
On the world stage, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told European Union leaders at a March summit in Brussels that "the basic principle of international humanitarian law is the protection of civilians."
"We must stick to principles in Ukraine as in Gaza without double standards," he added.
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'Total Unchecked Impunity': Netanyahu Plots Illegal Settlement Expansion in West Bank
"The right-wing, extremist Netanyahu government is not only breaking international law in Gaza, they are doing the same in the West Bank, where they are pursuing illegal annexation by force," said U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Jun 17, 2024
Top Israeli officials on Sunday discussed plans to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank as an act of retaliation against countries that recently joined the majority of the international community in recognizing Palestinian statehood.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a
statement Sunday announcing that government officials "discussed steps to strengthen settlement in Judea and Samaria, including in response to the countries that unilaterally recognized a Palestinian state after October 7, as well as a series of responses against the [Palestinian Authority] following its actions against Israel in [international] bodies."
"The defense minister and the attorney general requested additional time to comment on several of the proposed clauses," the statement added.
The government's announcement, released hours before Netanyahu dissolved Israel's war cabinet, comes amid an unprecedented wave of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank—violence that Israeli soldiers have abetted and frequently joined. Settlers and Israeli forces have demolished homes, razed refugee camps, set fire to cars and businesses, and carried out summary executions of West Bank residents—including children—in the eight months since Israel launched its assault on Gaza.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has vocally supported the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian territories, recently threatened that Israel's military would turn the West Bank into "ruined cities like in the Gaza Strip."
CNN noted Sunday that Smotrich suggested last month that "Israel should approve 10,000 settlements in the West Bank, establish a new settlement for every country that recognizes a state of Palestine, and cancel travel permits for Palestinian Authority officials."
"This is what total unchecked impunity sounds like," researcher Abe Silberstein wrote on social media following the latest news of Israel's settlement-expansion plans. "Netanyahu knows Biden will do nothing, and that he will in fact stop others from doing anything."
The Biden administration, which acknowledged earlier this year that Israeli settlements are "inconsistent with international law," has sanctioned a handful of settlers as well as an entity accused of fundraising for them, but critics say the actions were largely a public relations stunt.
"Netanyahu should be facing serious consequences for these violations, not receiving an invitation to address a joint session of Congress."
In May—amid growing global outrage over Israel's brutalization of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank—Norway, Ireland, and Spain announced their decision to formally recognize Palestinian statehood, drawing a furious response from Israel's right-wing government, which warned of "severe consequences" for the move.
Earlier this month, Slovenia's Parliament overwhelmingly voted to recognize Palestine, becoming the latest European country to do so.
Meanwhile, Israeli leaders—including Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—are facing the possibility of arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court's top prosecutor, who applied for the warrants against Israeli officials and Hamas leaders last month.
A United Nations report published last week found that Israeli forces in the West Bank have "committed acts of sexual violence, torture, and inhuman or cruel treatment and outrages upon personal dignity, all of which are war crimes."
"Furthermore," according to the report, "the government of Israel and Israeli forces permitted, fostered, and instigated a campaign of settler violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank."
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement Friday that "while the world is understandably focused on the destruction unfolding in Gaza, we should not lose sight of what is happening in the West Bank—actions which are in violation of both American and international law."
"Let's be clear: The right-wing, extremist Netanyahu government is not only breaking international law in Gaza, they are doing the same in the West Bank, where they are pursuing illegal annexation by force," said Sanders. "Netanyahu should be facing serious consequences for these violations, not receiving an invitation to address a joint session of Congress."
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After General Assembly Vote, UN Experts Demand All Nations Recognize Palestinian State
"The recognition of the state of Palestine is not only a matter of historical justice with the legitimate aspirations of the Palestine people, but it is also an imperative need to achieve peace," said a group of top rights experts.
Jun 03, 2024
After a United Nations General Assembly vote last month that made clearer than ever that global support for Israel's policies in the occupied Palestinian territories is shrinking, top experts at the U.N. on Monday issued a demand for all nations to recognize Palestinian statehood and said such a move is a necessary step toward peace in the Middle East.
"All states must follow the example of 146 United Nations member states and recognize the state of Palestine and use all political and diplomatic resources at their disposal to bring about an immediate ceasefire in Gaza," said the experts as Israel's bombardment of the blockaded enclave neared its eighth month.
Palestine's bid to become a full member of the U.N. was supported by 143 member states on May 10, and was followed by announcements by Irish, Spanish, and Norwegian officials that the three countries now recognize the occupied Palestinian territories as a state.
Israel is now joined by just a handful of countries—mostly wealthy Western nations including the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K.—in refusing to recognize Palestinian statehood.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said last week that his government's recognition of Palestinian statehood has "a single goal: to contribute to achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians."
"The recognition of the state of Palestine is not only a matter of historical justice with the legitimate aspirations of the [Palestinian] people, but it is also an imperative need to achieve peace," said Sánchez.
The U.N. experts on Monday expressed agreement, saying the global recognition of a Palestinian state would be "an important acknowledgement of the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggles and suffering towards freedom and independence."
"This is a pre-condition for lasting peace in Palestine and the entire Middle East—beginning with the immediate declaration of a cease-fire in Gaza and no further military incursions into Rafah," said the experts, including George Katrougalos, independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order; Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; and Cecilia M. Bailliet, independent expert on human rights and international solidarity.
The experts' statement came as the number of people forcibly displaced from Rafah, the southern Gaza city, surged past 1 million as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued its attacks there. The International Court of Justice—the top judicial body of the U.N.—ordered Israel to stop its military operations in Rafah on May 24, days before Israel killed at least 46 people by bombing a tent encampment that had been set up in a designated "humanitarian area."
U.S. President Joe Biden last week endorsed an Israeli plan for a cease-fire in Gaza—one that was similar to a proposal made by Hamas earlier in May, which had been rejected by Israel—but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would not agree to a permanent cease-fire until "the destruction of Hamas military and governing capabilities" is complete.
Netanyahu earlier this year said he would not agree to a Palestinian state, demanding control "of all territory west of the Jordan" River and reaffirming his opposition to the two-state solution that has long been the policy objective of the United States.
"A two-state solution," said the U.N. experts, "remains the only internationally agreed path to peace and security for both Palestine and Israel and a way out of generational cycles of violence and resentment."
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