Swedish move over Palestine signals a shift: The National

• Published date: 05 October 2014
• Publication title: Wam

The move by Sweden's centreleft government to recognise Palestine as a state is not surprising, in part because the UN General Assembly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine in 2012, and the Scandinavian country is also a proud part of liberal Europe and could easily be characterised as being predisposed to recognise such sovereignty claims.

In an editorial today, the Abu Dhabi based English language daily, The National, says that what makes this move particularly significant, is that the European Union and most other EU countries have yet to give official recognition to Palestine.

"Although a small cluster of European countries, including Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, have already recognised Palestine, they did so before formally joining the union," the editorial explains. "The move, which comes amid a diplomatic push by Palestinians at the UN to secure a resolution setting a deadline for Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian Territories and East Jerusalem by November 2016, signals that the trajectory of political thinking is changing." The editorial continues, "Certainly that is the case if the events of the past week are anything to go by. Consider the October 1st meeting between President Barack Obama and the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hours after which the US made a strong statement condemning...