The doors of the Moncloa palace opened on Tuesday morning to make way for the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who walked along a red carpet to a lectern, with a Spanish flag and another of the European Union in the background, with the solemnity that States use for their great announcements. In his statement to confirm the recognition of the Palestinian State, broadcast live on social networks and the website of the Presidency of the Government, Sánchez alluded to the “national and international significance” of the step that the Executive will take effect in the Council of Ministers. . He did so in Spanish and also in English in a speech marked by a certain institutional pageantry, which contrasts with the lower profile that the other two countries that this Tuesday will recognize Palestine, Norway and Ireland, have so far given to the formalization of that recognition announced on May 22.
Neither the Irish Prime Minister, Simon Harris, nor his Norwegian counterpart, Jonas Gahr Støre, have appeared publicly to refer to a decision that is not making the front pages of the main newspapers in those two countries either. Harris did make some statements to the press, in which he described the step as “historic”, before entering the Council of Ministers that made the decision official. At its end, the Irish Government issued a press release.
Norway has also released a similar document in which the country’s Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide, defines the recognition of the new State as “memorable for the relationship between Norway and Palestine,” Efe reports. Previously, last Sunday, the head of Norwegian diplomacy delivered a verbal note to the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohamed Mustafa, in which he announced that the decision would come into force this Tuesday, without further formalities. When the three countries announced last week that they would recognize the new State this Tuesday, the Norwegian Prime Minister appeared alongside the Foreign Minister in a sober press room.
The Nordic country, which is not part of the European Union, seems to have settled this issue with that relatively low-profile communication and with the joint appearance of the head of its diplomacy with his Spanish counterparts, José Manuel Albares, and Irish counterparts, Micheál Martin, this Monday. Significantly, this event took place at the headquarters of the permanent representation of Spain to the European Union in Brussels, another detail that indicates that the Spanish Government aspires to a certain role in a three-way decision that is believed to have been coordinated. at least in part, during the tour that Pedro Sánchez made in Europe in April to try to convince as many European states as possible to jointly recognize the Palestinian State.
This solemn announcement also has a certain logic with the traditional Spanish policy towards the Arab world. Spain, “due to its history and the type of approach it has had to the Palestinian question and, more broadly, to the Mediterranean and the Arab world” has made a “not radically different reading [del resto de Europa] on this issue, but a little different, and is aware that it has a history of particular relations with the Arab world,” Middle East expert Isaías Barreñada, professor of International Relations at the Complutense University.
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As this specialist maintains, Spain is not just any country for Arabs, due to its history and the rich Muslim legacy it treasures. It was the last State of those that then formed the European Communities, the predecessor of the European Union, to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel. He did it in 1986, the same year he joined the community club. This does not mean that the Palestinian issue has been “a priority; far from it,” says Barreñada. Yes, it has represented “a source of certain prestige for Spain in the Arab countries, despite how little has actually been done. Spain, so to speak, was pleased to be perceived as “more understanding, more open” in relation to Palestinian positions.
Gesture policy
These Spanish policies towards the Palestinian problem have translated more into “gestures” than into significant actions, says the professor at the Complutense University. The recognition of Palestine as a State is, for the moment, just that, a gesture. However, it has the potential to somewhat level the imbalance of forces between Israel and the Palestinians, if it is accompanied by more meaningful measures, such as the denunciation and non-recognition of the Israeli occupation in the territory of the future State, this and other experts point out. .
For now, the decision of Spain, Norway and Ireland has been received with a certain euphoria in the Arab countries and by a sector of the Palestinian population, an effect that the Government is surely aware of and that it probably seeks to magnify with the appearance of Pedro Sánchez In Spanish and English. By contrast, Ireland and Norway have no significant historical ties to the Arab world. In the case of the first of these States, there is a sentimental connection with the Palestinian people because they share a colonial past with them.
The Irish Prime Minister, Simon Harris, alluded to this shared colonial wound last Wednesday when announcing, with Spain and Norway, that his country was joining the initiative on Palestine. From Ramallah (West Bank), the analyst and former spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority Nour Odeh, then highlighted in a telephone interview with this newspaper how “the coordination” of the three countries, not only in terms of the day chosen for the announcement, but also regarding to the different content of the speech of their respective leaders, which he defines as “complementary”, which, in his opinion, cannot be coincidental.
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