Portugal has joined a growing number of Western nations, including Australia, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, in pledging formal recognition of a Palestinian state.
The announcement was made on Friday by the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirming that the official declaration will be issued on Sunday (September 21), just a day before a high-level United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) conference on Palestinian statehood.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms that Portugal will recognise the State of Palestine,” the ministry stated on its official website, noting that the recognition would occur in advance of the UN summit scheduled next week.
The decision follows consultations by Prime Minister Luis Montenegro with both the president and the country’s parliament, as reported by Portugal’s Correio da Manha newspaper. The move concludes nearly 15 years of internal political debate, which began in 2011 when the Left Bloc party first introduced the proposal in parliament.
Portugal’s recognition comes in the wake of a landmark United Nations inquiry that recently concluded Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza amounts to genocide. Since the Israeli military campaign began in October 2023, at least 65,141 Palestinians have been killed and 165,925 wounded. Thousands more are feared to be buried under rubble.
Lisbon initially indicated its intention to recognise Palestine back in July, citing “the extremely worrying evolution of the conflict”, worsening humanitarian conditions, and repeated Israeli threats to annex Palestinian territory.
Meanwhile, momentum is building ahead of Monday’s UNGA meeting in New York, which France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting. French President Emmanuel Macron’s adviser revealed that several other nations — including Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, San Marino, and Australia — plan to follow France’s lead in recognising Palestinian statehood at the gathering. Canada and the United Kingdom have also signaled similar intentions.
These countries will join a global majority: as of April, 147 UN member states — roughly 75 percent of the body — had already recognised Palestine as a sovereign state.
Portugal also voted on Friday alongside 144 other countries to allow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to address next week’s UNGA summit via video, after the United States denied him a visa.
The only countries voting against the measure were the US, Israel, Nauru, Palau, and Paraguay, with six nations abstaining.
The US and Israel have sharply criticised the growing list of recognitions. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called France’s move “reckless”, accusing it of “serving Hamas propaganda”.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich previously warned that a new illegal settlement would be established in the occupied West Bank for each country that recognises Palestine.
In Luxembourg, Prime Minister Luc Frieden and Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel told lawmakers earlier this week of their intent to support Palestinian statehood at the UNGA. Bettel also pledged to introduce legislation enabling further actions — including sanctions — against Israel, according to national broadcaster RTL Letzebuerg.
UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese has urged world governments to go beyond recognition and impose sanctions and arms embargoes on Israel to help halt the war in Gaza.
The original 1947 UNGA partition plan had allocated 45 percent of historic Palestine to an Arab state, but at the time the General Assembly included just 57 members, excluding many nations still under colonial rule and unable to vote.
Source: Al Jazeera
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