Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned against the planned recognition of an independent Palestinian state announced by Norway, Ireland and Spain.
“The intention of several European countries to recognize a Palestinian state is a reward for terrorism,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Wednesday.
‘Eighty percent of Palestinians in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] support the terrible massacre of October 7,” he claimed. “This evil cannot have a state.”
“This would be a terrorist state. It will try to repeat the October 7 massacre again and again; we will not agree to this,” the Israeli Prime Minister claimed.
“Rewarding terrorism will not bring peace, nor will it prevent us from defeating Hamas,” Netanyahu added.
A two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict envisions an independent Palestinian state that coexists peacefully with Israel.
Netanyahu is against a two-state solution, as is the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement.
Netanyahu would receive little support from his far-right coalition partners for a more conciliatory approach to relations with the Palestinians.
Critics have repeatedly accused Netanyahu of tolerating or even encouraging the rise of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. As a rival to President Mahmoud Abbas’s more moderate Fatah, it has served to divide the Palestinian people and prevent a Palestinian state.
Many right-wing Israelis view a Palestinian state as an unacceptable security risk for Israel.
