The Lisbon Chamber decided today, with the PSD/CDS-PP leadership voting against, to urge the Government to recognize the State of Palestine, in a motion proposed by the BE, which had the votes in favor of the remaining opposition councilors.
For the “end of the genocide in Gaza”, with “more than 37 thousand dead”, the BE council, represented by Ricardo Moreira, argued that “it is time to recognize the State of Palestine”.
In a public meeting of the chamber, BE’s motion was approved with votes against from the PSD/CDS-PP leadership, which governs without an absolute majority, and votes in favor from the rest, namely PS , PCP, Livre, BE and Citizens for Lisbon (CPL, elected by the PS/Livre coalition).
The PCP proposed that the recognition of the State of Palestine should be “with the 1967 borders and capital in East Jerusalem, as determined by United Nations resolutions”, but this point was rejected, with the exercise of the quality vote from the president of the chamber after a tie, with six votes in favor of PSD/CDS-PP (one councilor absent) and six in favor – two from PCP, two from CPL, one from Livre and one from BE -, with four abstentions (three from the PS and one councilor from the CPL).
Justifying the vote against, the president of the Lisbon Chamber, Carlos Moedas (PSD), said that it has to do with “the strong conviction of a two-state solution”, which implies that Portugal has the capacity to be a mediator, coordinating with the European Union, considering that “now is not the time” to recognize the State of Palestine.
“Portugal has done everything and Portugal is doing everything, in an unprecedented way until now, in relation to what Portugal voted for at the United Nations”, to increase and grant more privileges to Palestine, to ask the Security Council to consider Palestine’s request for accession as a full member, he said, underlining that “Portugal, with Denmark and Greece, leads a process of advocating for greater aid to enable the Palestinian authority, not further enable terrorism.”
Tiago Pereira Santos
From the PS council, Pedro Anastácio stated that “the existence of two states and the recognition of the State of Palestine is more than a fair humanitarian aspiration of the State of Palestine, which has exactly its right to exist in the same way that Israel has its right to exist.”
The socialist stressed that the news related to the conflict in the Middle East makes “a clear positioning of different countries from an international point of view more indispensable and important, in order to press for this recognition”, which is “an imperative of humanity.”
The PS councilor justified his abstention on the second point because he considered that the issue of borders and territory could initially create difficulties in drafting a solution.
From the PCP, Ana Jara argued that the recognition and definition of borders “is inseparable”, expressing surprise at the PS’s abstention, considering that it is “in default” of the position are from the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, with “the denunciation of the genocide that the State of Israel is currently perpetrating in Palestine”.
The ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip was triggered by the attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, which caused around 1,200 deaths and two hundred hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
Since then, Tel Aviv has launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip that has so far caused more than 37,000 deaths and more than 85,000 injuries, according to authorities in the Palestinian enclave, controlled by Hamas since 2007.
