Belgium will decide in September the recognition of Palestine

Belgium could soon follow France in the official recognition of the Palestinian State. But for the moment, the government remains cautious. The Belgian position will be arrested “early September”, said the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Prévot (the committed), while the General Assembly of the United Nations is looming on the horizon.

The press opposition for immediate recognition

This delay irritates part of the opposition, which presses the government to follow up on Emmanuel Macron. Thursday, the French president announced that France would recognize Palestine at the UN, a strong signal which immediately made the Belgian political landscape react.

The president of PS Paul Magnette spoke the next day: “If Macron can do so, there is no reason why Belgium does not do so too. Faced with the current genocide, recognizing Palestine is the only way to put the Netanyahu government under pressure”.

Same story on the side of the Open VLD. The deputy Kjell van der Elst calls to form “a European coalition for peace”, believing that Belgium can no longer stay back in the face of more than sixty thousand victims and “the total absence of perspectives of peace”.

Simple recognition is not sufficient

At Ecolo, Samuel Cogolati sees in the French position “a turning point”, but believes that it remains insufficient: “It is not a recognition that feeds babies in Gaza or which stops ethnic cleaning. It takes sanctions. And Belgium? How many deaths will it still be?”

The PTB also requires strong action. The group head of the Chamber, Sofie Merckx, recalled that “recognition is not enough” and requires an embargo as well as economic sanctions against Israel. The PTB even reaches out to the committed, at CD&V and Vooruit to form an alternative majority capable of breaking “immobility” of the current coalition.

Delicate balances

Such an initiative could bring together up to 87 seats in the Chamber, but would burst the balance of the Arizona coalition, already divided on the issue. The N-VA and the MR firmly oppose any recognition of Palestine and the very idea of sanctions.

Maxime Prévot recognized in mid-July that he had not managed to convince his partners to plead at European level for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. However, since the King’s speech of July 21 qualifying the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as “shame for all of humanity”, certain parties of the majority, including the CD&V, Vooruit and the committed, seem more inclined to develop their position.