UNESCO RECOGNIZED PALESTINE IN 2011
In 2011, when peace negotiations stalled, the Palestinians decided to resume the campaign for full UN membership for a “Palestinian state”.
The attempt failed but, in a breakthrough move on 31 October that year, the UN cultural body UNESCO voted to accept Palestine as a full member.
The decision sparked angry reactions from Israel and the United States, which suspended their funding for the Paris-based agency.
They left UNESCO outright in 2018, although the United States rejoined last year.
In November 2012, the Palestinian flag was raised for the first time at the United Nations in New York after the General Assembly decided to upgrade Palestine’s status to that of a “non-member observer state”.
Three years later, the International Criminal Court also accepted Palestine as a state party.
SWEDEN RECOGNIZED PALESTINE IN 2014
In 2014, Sweden, which has a large Palestinian community, became the first EU member in Western Europe to recognize a Palestinian state.
This action was taken following clashes that have occurred almost daily for months in east Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel.
The Palestinian state has previously been recognized by six other European countries – Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
Israel reacted angrily to Stockholm’s actions, and then-Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Sweden that “relationships in the Middle East are much more complex than IKEA-made furniture”.
HAMAS REJECTS RECENT PROPOSAL
Meanwhile, Hamas rejected Israel’s ceasefire proposal made at the latest talks in Cairo, a senior Hamas official said on Monday.
Israel and Hamas sent a team to Egypt on Sunday for talks involving Qatari and Egyptian mediators as well as CIA Director William Burns.
Burn’s presence underscores increasing pressure from Israel’s main ally, the US, to reach a deal that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza and provide aid to Palestinian civilians impoverished by the six-month conflict.
But senior Hamas official Ali Baraka told Reuters: “We rejected Israel’s latest proposal that the Egyptian side told us about. The Politburo met today and decided on this.”
Another Hamas official previously told Reuters that no progress had been made in the negotiations.
“There is no change in the (Israeli) occupation’s position and therefore, there is nothing new in the talks in Cairo,” the Hamas official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. “No progress yet.”
The details of the proposal are not yet known for certain.
