Ireland to recognize Palestinian statehood by end of May
Ireland says it will certainly recognize Palestinian statehood by the end of this month; a move that according to Palestinian human rights activists will not stop Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip if no "real action" is taken.
Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland Micheal Martin told the country’s national radio station Newstalk on Wednesday that Dublin “will be recognizing the state of Palestine.”
He said that the specific date is still “fluid because we're still in discussions with some countries in respect of a joint recognition of a Palestinian state.”
“It will become clear in the next few days as to the specific date but it certainly will be before the end of this month.”
Martin also said, “What is important here is we focus on the substantive issues of an immediate ceasefire.”
“The suffering is immense. The death and destruction is immense, and people want it to stop and the international community want it to stop.”
Dublin has long said it has no objection in principle to officially recognizing the Palestinian state if it could help the peace process in West Asia.
However, two Palestinian human rights activists say that recognizing the state of Palestine will not stop Israel’s war in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Shawan Jabarin, general director of the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, and Lubnah Shomali, an advocacy manager at BADIL, a resource center for Palestinian refugees, are due to give talks in Dublin and Belfast this week.
“I think this is a good step. Even if it’s late, this is a good, important step,” Jabarin said Friday.
“But the question is, which actions after that they take? Without actions, without consequences, things will continue as it has forever.”
He said, “It’s not just the issue to give a symbolic step. We need also actions, we need consequences.”
Shomali also noted that the recognition of Palestine “doesn’t fulfil the obligation of Ireland and other third party states to prevent and stop genocide.”
At least 82 Palestinians have been killed in the past 24 hours in the Gaza Strip, the highest death toll in a single day in over seven months, during Israel’s military campaign against the narrow populated strip.
More than 35,230 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have so far been killed in Gaza, the Health Ministry in the Palestinian territory said Wednesday. .
Mass graves, crippled hospitals, damaged or destroyed schools and near total destruction of infrastructure now haunt the besieged territory with no end in sight to the regime’s war.
Two armed Israeli settlers killed in Hezbollah rocket attack on Nahariya
Evidence shows Israel using hunger as weapon in Gaza: South Africa
UN 'urgently calls on Israel to open up' north Gaza to humanitarian aid
UN condemns Israel’s 'acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes' in Gaza
VIDEO | Press TV's news headlines
VIDEO | France-Israel ties questioned
VIDEO | UN rapporteur for occupied Palestinian territories visits UK
VIDEO | Palestinian Bedouin communities struggle amid Israel's settlement expansion
VIDEO | British activist on hunger strike for Gaza
VIDEO | Turkey under pressure to cut off oil supplies to Israel
Iran warns US against resumption of ‘maximum pressure’ policy
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
