Rangel’s predecessor says Portugal would have recognised Palestine had Socialists remained in power
In a statement that many will find hugely exasperating, Portugal’s foreign affairs minister Paulo Rangel has said the country is under no pressure to follow France’s example, and recognise the State of Palestine.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday that France will recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
In a post on social media platform X, Macron released the letter sent to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in which he confirms France’s intention to become the first major Western power to officially recognise the Palestinian state.
Eleven European countries however have already done so, including Spain, Ireland, Norway, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Sweden.
In the face of what is so clearly going on in Gaza, Macron’s stand changes nothing in the immediate term (albeit international news sources say it is designed to get big-hitters like the UK onboard). The decision at least acknowledges a refusal to see an entire people denied the right to live on land that has been theirs for generations.
In the past, Portugal’s approach to Palestine, indeed the suffering in Gaza, has been very positive. When other countries were persuaded to stop funding UNRWA, the then foreign minister of the time (PS Socialist João Gomes Cravinho) went out on a limb to ensure Portugal increased funding.
Speaking recently on TSF radio, Mr Cravinho admits that had PS Socialists remained in power, they would have already recognised the State of Palestine.
He dubbed the current government’s stance “a rare divergence” between different Lisbon administrations on foreign relations.
“There is not a shadow of doubt” that Gaza is suffering a genocide, he told his interviewer. “Obviously, it is a matter for lawyers to debate, but what stands out is that it seems to correspond entirely to the definition of genocide – and therefore I have no hesitation in classifying what Israel is doing in Gaza in this way”.
The Socialist Party has already accused Luís Montenegro’s government of maintaining ‘deafening silence’ on the situation in Gaza – and now Paulo Rangel has done a careful balancing act on the fence of diplomacy: “Portugal has always been open” to recognising the State of Palestine, he told journalists on the sidelines of the EuroAfrican forum in Lisbon, but “Portugal is a sovereign country and, therefore, its policy is not defined by other states, but has always been coordinated with partner states” which may include France, but is not ‘just France’.”
Mr Rangel did not allude to the fact that so many other European countries have also signed up to recognising the State of Palestine.
But while Paulo Rangel declines commitment, 120 ‘well-known personalities’ (mostly in the field of the arts) have petitioned the government to play a much more “active role in the defence of human rights, and the end of genocide”.
As the various subscribers consider in their appeal “it is unacceptable to be neutral in the face of what is taking place in Gaza (…) It is unacceptable for Europe to watch in silence as children searching for food die (…) to do nothing while war crimes are committed on a daily basis.”
The petition launched yesterday can be found online.
Sources: SIC Notícias/ Lusa/ TSF Rádio
