COPENHAGEN: – The Parliament of Denmark rejected a proposal to recognise a Palestinian state on Tuesday.
The rejection comes on a day that Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognised an independent Palestinian state.
Israel, which has been fighting with the Palestinian militants of Hamas, which rules Gaza, has reacted furiously to the European moves.
The Danish bill had been proposed by four left-wing parties.
Sascha Faxe, member of parliament for The Alternative, said recognising a Palestinian state was the only way to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East.
“The vast majority of Danish politicians agree that there will be no lasting peace in the Middle East without a two-state solution,” she said. She saw recognition as a way to give rights to ordinary Palestinians, she added.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen had earlier said the government could not recognise a Palestinian state since it did not have a single functioning authority.
“We cannot recognize an independent Palestinian state for the sole reason that the preconditions are not really there. We cannot support this resolution, but we wish that there will come a day where we can,” Rasmussen said at the time.
Rasmussen did not take part in Tuesday’s debate.
University Cuts West Bank Investments
Meanwhile, the University of Copenhagen said on Tuesday it would halt investment in companies that do business in the occupied West Bank. This followed student protests pressuring the campus to cut financial and institutional ties with Israel.
Hundreds of students began campus protests in early May to express their opposition to Israel’s operations in Gaza that were triggered by deadly attacks by Hamas militants in Israel on October. 7.
The students have demanded that the university cut academic ties with Israel and divest from companies operating in occupied Palestinian territories.
(Reuters)
