Ireland, Spain, and Norway on Wednesday said they will officially recognize a Palestinian state in a historic move that was met with a predictably furious response by Israel as it faces mounting international condemnation over its war with Hamas in Gaza.
Although the majority of countries in the world already recognize a sovereign state of Palestine, most in Western Europe, along with the U.S., do not. The news of the latest additions—whose formal recognition will begin Tuesday—was welcomed by Palestinian officials as a highly symbolic victory for their people and derided by the government of Israel, which wasted no time in excoriating the decision.
Writing on X before Spain announced its decision to join Norway and Ireland, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he had ordered the “immediate recall” of his country’s ambassadors to Oslo and Dublin.
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“Today’s decision sends a message to the Palestinians and the world: Terrorism pays,” Katz wrote. “After the Hamas terror organization carried out the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, after committing heinous sexual crimes witnessed by the world, these countries chose to reward Hamas and Iran by recognizing a Palestinian state.”
He also slammed the “distorted step” as an injustice to the victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks—which sparked the current war in Gaza—and said it would act as “a blow to efforts to return the 128 hostages.” Katz also claimed the decision represents a “boost to Hamas and Iran’s jihadists, which undermines the chance for peace and questions Israel’s right to self-defense.”
“Israel will not remain silent—there will be further severe consequences,” Katz wrote. “If Spain follows through on its intention to recognize a Palestinian state, a similar step will be taken against it.” He added that Israel would not be deterred by the “Irish-Norwegian folly.”
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced his government’s decision by arguing that a “lasting solution to the conflict in the Middle East is only achieved through a two-state solution.” “There can be no two-state solution without a Palestinian state. In other words, a Palestinian state is a prerequisite for achieving peace in the Middle East,” he said.
Gahr Støre also said he would “take note” of Israel’s decision to recall its ambassador. “This is a government with which we have many disagreements,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “What we agree on is to condemn Hamas’s cruel attack on Oct. 7.”
Simon Harris, the Irish Taoiseach—a head of government position equivalent to that of a prime minister—said Ireland was similarly recognizing Palestine “as a nation among nations” to “keep the hope of that two-state solution alive.” He also said Ireland was “honored” to make the recognition at the same time as Spain and Norway, remaining hopeful that “others will do the same in the next wave.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, meanwhile, insisted that the recognition “is not against Israel” or the Jewish people, nor is it “in favor of Hamas,” but rather it is in favor of “peace and coexistence,” he said, the BBC reports. He added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “still playing deaf ears” and “still bombing hospitals and schools and punishing women and children with hunger and cold.”
Netanyahu has yet to personally respond to the development. Earlier this week, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court requested an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his defense minister over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to the war in Gaza. Netanyahu slammed the “outrageous” move, accusing the ICC prosecutor of making “blood libels” and “callously pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism that are raging across the world.”
He has long opposed the establishment of a Palestinian state, hailing an overwhelming Knesset vote in February rejecting any “unilateral” recognition of such a state as a clear statement that Israel “will not reward terrorism by unilateral recognition in response to the October 7 massacre, nor will we accept imposed solutions” amid rising international clamor for new talks on Palestinian statehood. Netanyahu said the formation of Palestinian state “would not only fail to bring peace but would endanger the state of Israel.”
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of Palestinian Authority, welcomed the decisions of Ireland, Spain, and Norway. In a statement reported by the Wafa news agency, Abbas called on other countries yet to recognize the state of Palestine to “acknowledge the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and restore confidence in a global system based on rules and equal rights for all the peoples of the earth.”
