Palestine recognition and votes. Dark green means diplomatic recognition of the State of Palestine, voting “yes” at UN General Assembly in 2012, dark blue means non-recognition, voting “yes” at UNGA/2012, red—non-recognition, voting “no” at UNGA/2012. Source: Wikimedia Commons, Japinderum, CC BY-SA 3.0
The majority of parliamentary parties support the recognition of a Palestinian state, but the opposition of two government parties seems to be holding back the matter.
The Finnish media Yle reports that support for the recognition of Palestine has been found on both the right and the left. The Greens, the Left Alliance, the Social Democratic Party and the Movement Now are demanding immediate action on the issue.
The Social Democratic Party hopes that recognition will take place without delay.
“Finland will be left questionably on the wrong side of history if it does not recognise the state of Palestine at the latest when France intends to do so officially during the autumn UN week,” writes Tytti Tuppurainen, the chair of the SDP parliamentary group.
The governing parties, the National Coalition Party and the Finnish People’s Party, are giving the green light to recognition, but not on as fast a schedule as the others.
The opposing parties are the Christian Democrats and the right-wing Finns’ Party, who would not recognise the state of Palestine. They are practically preventing the government from moving forward with the issue.
“There are currently no conditions in the region for a two-state model, and terrorism has not been brought to an end,” writes Jani Mäkelä, the chair of the Finns’ Party parliamentary group, in his response.
Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen says that Finland is closely following the international discussion on recognising Palestine, but she avoids the question of the actual preparation of the matter.
“Of course, we cooperate not only within the international community but also with our most important peer partner countries.”
France’s announcement last week that it would recognise the state of Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September has also created pressure on Finland in this regard.
Finland’s foreign policy leadership has previously signaled that Finland would be ready to recognise Palestine if Finland’s peer countries, such as France, moved forward on the matter.
According to Valtonen, these peer countries that are important to Finland are, in addition to France, Denmark and the United Kingdom, and close dialogue is being held with them on the matter. Of course, each country ultimately makes its own decisions independently.
Valtonen met with French Foreign Minister Jean-Nöel Barrot last week. Did he lobby Finland hard for recognition of Palestine during the meeting?
“We talk to Jean-Nöel almost every day anyway. There is no need to lobby anything more, as long as we exchange information and ideas.”
“Of course, the meeting also discussed other things than the situation in the Middle East, but of course the most acute issue here is the famine in Gaza and the suffering of the people. The international community and the European Union have a duty to do everything they can to alleviate the suffering of the people.”
Recognition Of Palestine A Difficult Equation In Domestic Politics
Is Finland prepared to move quickly in recognising Palestine if several European countries follow France’s announcement before the UN General Assembly?
Valtonen states that the Constitution has established ways of making decisions. Foreign and security policy is led by the President of the Republic in cooperation with the government.
“At this point, there has been no need to update existing positions.”
Valtonen reminds that Finland’s line in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is based on the two-state model. This has been unanimously accepted by all parties in the foreign and security policy report.
Do you think the government partners can be persuaded to support recognition by some means?
“I am not going to take a position on who needs to be persuaded and what. At the moment, there has been no reason to update our line. We are now moving forward based on the Foreign and Security Policy Report.”
How do you respond to the opposition’s criticism that Finland should be on the right side of history in recognising Palestine now and not wait?
Foreign Minister Valtonen believes that supporting the two-state model is being on the right side of history. Recognising Palestine requires certain conditions to be met and, more broadly, the approval of the international community.
She points out that, for example, four years ago, Slovenia, Ireland and Spain also recognised Palestine and it led nowhere.
“However, recognition can only be done once.”
In Search Of A Balanced And Lasting Peace
A conference is currently being held in New York to consider the Palestinian state model, where Finland is represented by State Secretary Jukka Salovaara at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
France and Saudi Arabia have pushed for an initiative that would see Arab countries condemn the extremist organisation Hamas for the first time and demand its disarmament.
Would the implementation of this initiative have any significance for Finland’s actions in the recognition issue?
“Of course, all commitments are important, but we assess this as part of the international community,” Elina Valtonen states.
According to the Foreign Minister, peace in the Middle East and the realisation of the two-state model requires many things.
First of all, terrorist organisations cannot be responsible for the administration of the Palestinian population. On the other hand, more than thirty countries condemned Israel’s efforts to change the Palestinian territories last week. This means, among other things, the accelerated construction of settlements in the West Bank.
“We do not accept actions by which Israel practically seeks to change the Palestinian territory by force, either geographically or its population base. These are absolutely essential conditions for a Palestinian state to be able to act independently one day.”
Valtonen also emphasises that at the same time, Israel’s security must also be taken care of, for example, through security guarantees from moderate Arab countries and the normalisation of relations.
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