Portugal to recognise a Palestinian state

Portugal has joined Australia, Canada, France and the United Kingdom in announcing plans to recognise a Palestinian state.

In a statement on Friday, the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the recognition will take place on Sunday, a day before a high-level conference on Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Global outcry
Portugal’s announcement comes days after a landmark UN inquiry found that Israel’s war on Gaza amounts to a genocide.

At least 65,141 people have been killed and 165,925 wounded since Israel’s onslaught began in October 2023. Many thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble.
Earlier on Friday, an adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron said that Andorra, Australia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and San Marino plan to recognise the State of Palestine alongside France at the high-level meeting it is co-organising with Saudi Arabia in New York on Monday.
Canada and the United Kingdom have also said they intend to do the same.

They will join some 147 countries, representing 75 percent of UN members, that had already recognised Palestinian statehood as of April this year.

Portugal was also among 145 countries which voted on Friday to create an option for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to address the UNGA in New York next week by video, after the United States denied him a visa.

Nauru, Palau, Paraguay, as well as Israel and the US, were the five countries that voted no, while six countries abstained.

Israel and the US have strongly criticised countries moving to recognise Palestine, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing France’s announcement as a “reckless decision” that “only serves Hamas propaganda”.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich warned last year that a new illegal Israeli settlement would be established in the occupied West Bank for every country that recognises Palestine.