Ireland, Norway, Spain Plan to Recognize Palestine

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at discussions in Europe regarding Palestinian statehood, U.S.-Kenyan diplomatic efforts, and snap elections in the United Kingdom.

Palestinian Statehood

Ireland, Norway, and Spain announced on Wednesday that they will recognize the state of Palestine by May 28 in a largely symbolic move to grant the enclave international legitimacy. “This is an investment in the only solution that can bring lasting peace in the Middle East,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said on Wednesday in reference to the two-state solution.

The decision will likely have little immediate impact on people living in Gaza—where the Israel-Hamas war has created a dire humanitarian crisis and killed more than 35,500 Palestinians—or the West Bank. However, both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, the latter of which exercises limited self-rule over the West Bank, praised the recognition, arguing that it will give Palestinians hope for peace and security.

The move comes as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced on Wednesday that Israel will allow its citizens to return to three former West Bank settlements after being barred from doing so. Israelis were evacuated from the areas in 2005 as part of a broader disengagement that also saw the withdrawal of all Israeli security forces and settlements in Gaza. At the time, the evacuation of the settlements in the occupied West Bank was heralded by international observers as a positive step toward creating conditions conducive to the establishment of a contiguous, sovereign Palestinian state.

Around 140 members of the United Nations already recognize a Palestinian state, and earlier this month, the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine, including the right to speak on all issues and participate in U.N. debates.

However, few major Western powers recognize Palestine’s sovereignty. On Wednesday, the White House reiterated that U.S. President Joe Biden is a “strong supporter” of a two-state solution but believes that “a Palestinian state should be realized through direct negotiations between the parties, not through unilateral recognition,” which has long been the U.S. position. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said London will not recognize a Palestinian state while Hamas remains in Gaza.

Israel rejects all moves to legitimize the enclave on an international scale. Recognizing Palestinian statehood is “a reward for terror,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. In response to Wednesday’s announcements, Israel recalled its ambassadors in Ireland, Norway, and Sweden. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said his office also summoned the top diplomats of those three countries for “reprimand talks,” during which they were shown a video of female Israeli soldiers being abducted during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel will also withhold funds from the Palestinian Authority.

Some experts believe that these new state recognitions could spur more European countries to consider the move. European Union members Malta and Slovenia—alongside Spain and Ireland—suggested in March that they were considering Palestine’s recognition as “a positive contribution” toward ending the war.

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What We’re Following

State visit. Kenyan President William Ruto traveled to Washington on Wednesday for the start of a three-day diplomatic mission. Ruto is the first African leader to be feted with a formal U.S. state visit since 2008. While at the White House, Ruto will meet with Biden to discuss ways to bolster investment, tech innovation, clean energy, and security. Kenya and the United States have long partnered on counterterrorism efforts in Africa, including against extremist group al-Shabab, and Washington seeks to further its influence on the continent as rivals China and Russia advance their reach across the global south.

Ruto’s visit comes just days before Nairobi is set to deploy around 1,000 police officers to Haiti to try to help quell rampant gang violence in the country. The Bahamas, Barbados, Benin, Chad, and Bangladesh are expected to back Kenya’s forces. Washington has refused to contribute its own troops but remains one of Kenya’s strongest supporters for the multilateral effort, even when Nairobi faced domestic hurdles toward approving the deployment.

Early vote. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday called for surprise snap elections to be held on July 4, saying the economy is under control and inflation has improved. Sunak’s Conservative Party, which has held power for the past 14 years, is polling around 20 points behind the opposition Labour Party. Some analysts predict that Labour leader Keir Starmer will become the United Kingdom’s next prime minister.

A new Sunflower Movement? More than 10,000 people gathered in Taipei, Taiwan, late Tuesday to protest a controversial legislative package that some experts argue aims to weaken newly elected President Lai Ching-te’s ability to govern. Under the set of bills, the China-leaning opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party is pursuing a free trade agreement with Beijing. The KMT skipped committee review to try to get the legislation passed, and it issued amendments that would allow lawmakers to summon individuals for questioning and criminally charge anyone who refuses to appear before parliament or lies in the legislature.

Critics fear the amendments could be used to target political dissidents or disclose confidential information, thereby hurting Taiwan’s national security. China has repeatedly denounced Lai for his past pro-independence rhetoric. Some analysts are comparing Tuesday’s public demonstrations to the 2014 Sunflower Movement, a Taiwanese student-led campaign that protested the KMT’s passage of a treaty with China.

AfD controversy. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party announced on Wednesday that it will ban leading candidate Maximilian Krah from appearing at election events over his comments that not all Nazi SS commanders should be considered criminals. The SS (or Schutzstaffel) was the Nazi party’s paramilitary branch in charge of overseeing the mass murder of Jews. Krah has also come under scrutiny in recent weeks for reportedly receiving payments from Russia and China. His aide was arrested last month for allegedly spying for Beijing.

The AfD’s decision follows French far-right politician Marine Le Pen saying on Tuesday that her National Rally party will stop cooperating with the AfD in the European Parliament. “It’s time to make a clean break with this movement, which has no leadership and is clearly under the sway of radical groups within it,” Le Pen said on Wednesday. The European Parliament is set to hold elections in early June.

Odds and Ends

Science fiction aficionados aren’t giving up yet on the New York City-to-Dublin video portal. The popular installation, which offers a live video feed connecting the two cities, reopened on Sunday with new sensors in place to block inappropriate behavior. The tweaks followed a series of incidents last week, in which some passersby exposed their body parts or held up inappropriate images. “It’s obviously very entertaining, even if there’s nothing happening on the other side,” one participant said.