Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Half of European Union Backs Palestinian State

Nearly half of all European Union member states will vote in favor of upgrading the Palestinian Authority’s status at the United Nations, an E.U. spokesperson reportedly said.

The news site E.U. Observer on Tuesday quoted the E.U.’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Maja Kocijancic, as saying that “about 12” of the E.U.’s 27 member states will vote in favor of the Palestinian bid to gain U.N. “Observer State status” on the basis of “the pre-1967 borders.”

Last year, the U.N.’s cultural office, UNESCO, admitted “Palestine” as a member. Eleven E.U. countries – Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia and Spain – voted in favor. Another 11 abstained, and five – the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Sweden – voted against.

Cyprus and Israel have since developed closer ties over joint exploration of natural gas in the Mediterranean Sea. But Dutch foreign minister Uri Rosenthal left his post in a new coalition government this week.

Rosenthal’s successor, center-left politician Frans Timmermans, has in the past criticized the Dutch government’s pro-Israeli line.

In September of last year, Timmermans wrote on his Twitter account: “The Dutch policy in the Middle East is being determined by Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu,” Israel’s prime minister.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.