Irish Upper House Votes to Recognize ‘Palestine’

YERUSHALAYIM (Hamodia Staff) —

Israel rolled with another diplomatic punch on Thursday, opting for a low-key response as the Upper House of the Irish parliament passed a non-binding resolution calling on Ireland to recognize “Palestine,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

The motion, from the main opposition party, called on the government to “formally recognize the State of Palestine and do everything it can at the international level to help secure a viable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Earlier this month, similar moves in Europe provoked strong reactions in Yerushalayim.

Sweden’s new prime minster announced that his country would recognize ‘Palestine,’ and there was a non-binding vote in support of such move by the British House of Commons.

Israel is choosing not to make too much of it in this case. Emmanuel Nachshon, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, limited himself to saying that supporting Palestinian unilateral moves “will not help bring them back to the negotiating table.”

One Israeli official explained that the Irish vote is only symbolic and will have negligible impact. In any case, Ireland is already known as one of Israel’s harshest critics in the EU.

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