Belgium, Australia to recognize Palestine

The government of Belgium is “favorably inclined” toward recognizing a Palestinian state, the European country’s Foreign Minister Didier Reynders stated on Sunday, adding the move is adopted as a means of promoting the two-state offer.

Belgian legislators are in the midst of drafting the text of a non-binding resolution, making Belgium the latest among a number of European countries to adopt such a measure to demonstrate support for the Palestinian statehood effort.

“We have a first draft text and our ambition is to bring it swiftly to the parliamentary committee” that deals with foreign policy issues, a legislator with the ruling party said.

Peter Luykx qualified his statement by emphasizing that the resolution was not a display of “unconditional support” for Palestinian statehood, but that “quite a few conditions and strings are attached.

Meanwhile in Australia, a bipartisan motion calling for the recognition of Palestine was tabled in Australia’s federal parliament this week.

Labor MP Maria Vamvakinou, who is a co-convener of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group, on Monday tabled the private members’ bill in Canberra calling on the Liberal government of Tony Abbott, one of Israel’s most outspoken allies, to formally recognize a Palestinian state.