Australia considers recognising independent Palestinian state

Recognition gaining momentum?

For decades, the formal recognition of a Palestinian state has been seen as the endgame of a peace process between Palestinians and their Israeli neighbours.

The United States, Australia and most Western European nations have said they are willing to one day recognise Palestinian statehood, but not before agreement on thorny issues like the status of Jerusalem and final borders are agreed.

With Israel's inhumane war on Gaza raging, and Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government installed in Israel, the prospects of a peace process have rarely looked dimmer.

But after months of brutal Israeli attacks on Gaza, diplomats are reconsidering once-contentious ideas.

"The failures of this approach by all parties over decades — as well as the Netanyahu Government's refusal to even engage on the question of a Palestinian state — have caused widespread frustration," Wong said.

"So the international community is now considering the question of Palestinian statehood as a way of building momentum towards a two-state solution," she added.

Her comments come after the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Slovenia, and Spain have floated the idea of recognising a Palestinian state.

In 2014, Sweden, which has a large Palestinian community, became the first EU member in western Europe to recognise a Palestinian state.

The state of Palestine had earlier been recognised by six other European countries: Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

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Source: TRT