Portugal to recognise a Palestinian state

Portugal has joined Australia, Canada, France and the United Kingdom in announcing plans to recognise a Palestinian state.

In a statement on Friday, the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the recognition will take place on Sunday, a day before a high-level conference on Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms that Portugal will recognise the State of Palestine,” the ministry wrote in a statement on its website.

“The Official Declaration of Recognition will take place on Sunday, September 21st, before next week’s High-Level Conference,” the statement added.

According to Portugal’s Correio da Manha newspaper, the country’s centre-right Prime Minister Luis Montenegro consulted with the president and parliament before finalising the decision.

It marked the end of nearly 15 years of debate in the Western European country’s parliament, Correio da Manha reported, after the proposal was first put forward by the country’s Left Bloc political party in 2011.

Global outcry

Portugal’s announcement comes days after a landmark UN inquiry found that Israel’s war on Gaza amounts to a genocide.

At least 65,141 people have been killed and 165,925 wounded since Israel’s onslaught began in October 2023. Many thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble.

The Portuguese government first announced its intentions on recognising Palestine as a state in July, citing “extremely worrying evolution of the conflict”, as well as the humanitarian crisis and Israel’s repeated threats to annex Palestinian land.

Earlier on Friday, an adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron said that Andorra, Australia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and San Marino plan to recognise the State of Palestine alongside France at the high-level meeting it is co-organising with Saudi Arabia in New York on Monday.

Canada and the United Kingdom have also said they intend to do the same.

They will join some 147 countries, representing 75 percent of UN members, that had already recognised Palestinian statehood as of April this year.

Portugal was also among 145 countries which voted on Friday to create an option for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to address the UNGA in New York next week by video, after the United States denied him a visa.

Nauru, Palau, Paraguay, as well as Israel and the US, were the five countries that voted no, while six countries abstained.

Israel and the US have strongly criticised countries moving to recognise Palestine, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing France’s announcement as a “reckless decision” that “only serves Hamas propaganda”.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich warned last year that a new illegal Israeli settlement would be established in the occupied West Bank for every country that recognises Palestine.

Luxembourg considers sanctions

Earlier this week, Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Luc Frieden and Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel told a parliamentary commission that their country intends to recognise Palestinian statehood at the UNGA.

Bettel also said that he would propose a bill to parliament so that Luxembourg could take further measures, such as sanctions, according to the country’s broadcaster RTL Letzebuerg.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, has implored countries to take more measures to end Israel’s war on Gaza, including by imposing sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel.

Under its 1947 plan to partition Palestine, the UNGA said it would grant 45 percent of the land to an Arab state.

At the time, the UNGA had just 57 member states, with dozens of countries under colonial rule unable to vote.