Recognising Palestine is not just symbolic

In September, Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel is expected to finally pronounce himself on whether Luxembourg will recognise Palestine statehood. After nearly two years of devastating war in Gaza, a decade since parliament first called on the government to formally recognise the state of Palestine, and months of countries around the globe standing up in solidarity, Bettel will perhaps reach the end of the road of stalling on the issue.

Already back in 2014, a majority in parliament passed a motion “inviting” the government to “formally recognise the state of Palestine in the 1967 borders, modified only with the agreement of both parties.”

That majority at the time included Bettel’s DP and his coalition partners, the LSAP and Greens. Even then, the government failed to heed the call.

And it still resists.

While a wave of countries in the EU and around the world has recognised Palestine statehood in the face of unbridled violence in Gaza, Luxembourg has bided its time. While it backs a two-state solution, it still only recognises one of these states. France, Ireland, Slovenia, Spain, Norway, the UK, Canada, Australia… the list of countries that have either already recognised Palestine or have pledged to do so is growing. It now includes more than three-quarters of the UN’s member states.

Bettel’s claim that he wants to wait to build momentum for a coalition of the willing is wearing thin. Who exactly is he waiting for at this point?

The issue is contentious within the EU. Unlike support for Ukraine, there is no broad consensus on sanctions against Israel. Luxembourg is finding itself forced to pick a side, a situation it is evidently uncomfortable with. But trying to play the middle ground – a friend of neither Israel nor Palestine but a friend of peace, as Bettel once put it – is becoming increasingly untenable. 

Israel is sweeping across Gaza and the West Bank with impunity.

More than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, not including bodies still buried beneath the rubble, the missing, or people dead, or dying because of famine or illness.

Israeli military intelligence shows that five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza are civilians, an investigation by The Guardian revealed this week. Only 17% of casualties are Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters, according to the investigation.

Genocide scholars, lawyers and human rights activists – including in Israel – have said Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes, which multiple member countries of the court have openly said they would defy.

The UN’s Famine Review Committee on Friday for the first time officially declared famine in Gaza City. More than 640,000 Palestinians – almost the entire population of Luxembourg – are expected to experience catastrophic hunger by the end of September. Israeli officials promptly accused the UN of parroting Hamas lies.

The Israeli government this week approved a major West Bank settlement plan – illegal under international law. The settlement would effectively cut the West Bank in two and tear up the smallest shred of hope of a two-state solution. Israel’s expansionism is allowed to go ahead unchecked as the world sits, watches and waits.

There is a sour taste of racism to the EU’s inaction. While Israel is considered a member of the “West”, Palestine is not.

The historic guilt of the Holocaust has turned into moral paralysis and “What about-ism”. What about Israel’s right to exist? What about 7 October? What about the hostages? What about anti-Semitism?

Grievances have been harboured for decades in a layered and complex conflict, rooted in European colonialism, that includes proxies from the region and beyond.

But what about Palestine’s right to exist? What about decades of oppression and violence? What about 19,000 children killed in Gaza? What about Islamophobia?

Let’s imagine that by some historical accident Israel was fighting against white Christians (whose religious history is also deeply tied to the land) not brown Muslims. Where we have rushed to the defence of Ukranians, Palestinians are expendable. While Russia has been slapped with one round of sanctions after another, Israel’s government has not.

The EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 32% of the country’s total trade last year. The disaster that is unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank right in front of the world’s eyes is a political choice.

Recognising Palestine in this context is anything but purely symbolic (as Bettel has so often claimed) but it constitutes action. It is something. And that is better than nothing.