Greek Parliament Resolution of 2015 recognizing a Palestinian state

While three countries are two EU and one Scandinavian – taking the historic step of recognizing a Palestinian state, this does not mean they hold anti-Semitic views or support Hamas. Greece, which passed a parliamentary resolution in 2015 to recognize a Palestinian state, now takes the opposite view.

In December 2015, in the presence of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, parliament voted unanimously for the government to move forward with all necessary procedures for recognizing the state of Palestine. In his opening remarks, House Speaker Nikos Voutis outlined the House Standing Committee's plan, under which the committee would recognize two-state coexistence and a single, democratic and sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

Since then, there has been no progress in this direction, and in 2017, responding to a KKE parliamentary question on the topic, then Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias referred to relations with Palestine, which had “traditionally been excellent,” noting: “My circular from 2015 established the mandatory use of the term “Palestine” by all Greek government bodies.” In addition, he assured that “Greece remains firmly committed to the peace process providing for the creation of two states in accordance with UN resolutions. We are working in this direction as an EU country with historical relations with the Arab world and friendly relations with Israel.”

The issue of recognition of a Palestinian state was finally put on the backburner when Alexis Tsipras, as Prime Minister, decided to build and maintain excellent relations with Israel, promoting important bilateral agreements, even calling the work on trilateral cooperation between Greece, Israel and Cyprus “landmark”. .

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