All the Countries—Including Sweden—That Now Recognize Palestinian Statehood

posted on: Oct 6, 2014

Sweden announced that it will recognize the state of Palestine, becoming the first member of the European Union to do so. Stefan Lofven became the prime minister of a new center-left government this month and used his inaugural address to parliament to say that a “two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to peaceful co-existence. Sweden will therefore recognize the state of Palestine.”

Currently, more than 130 countries officially recognize Palestine:

That is significantly up from about 90 that did so in 1988, when the Palestinian National Council unilaterally declared independence based upon a two-state solution:

Sweden’s move follows the UN General Assembly’s recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine as a non-member observer state in 2012. (The Palestinians presented <a href=”http://www.nad-plo.org/userfiles/file/fact%20sheet/who%20and%20why%20recognize%20Palestine%20Factsheet%20-%20english%20July%202011_pdf.pdf?_ga=1.115068935.105938486.1412611466″> 122 countries as recognizing them</a> (pdf) when they made their bid.) The rest of the EU has yet to recognize Palestine in the aftermath of the vote, though some European countries like Hungary and Poland have recognized the Palestinians and did so before joining the EU.

The next country to consider the issue? The UK, which will vote on recognition of Palestine after the parliament’s summer recess ends on Oct. 13th.

Quartz
Kabir Chibber