Spain is leading a charge for Palestinian statehood. Who will follow?

"The time has come for the international community to once and for all recognise the State of Palestine. It is something that many EU countries believe we have to do jointly, but if this is not the case, Spain will adopt its own decision."

This was the call made by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in November. In a deeply polarised continent, Spain has broken away from the status quo and led the way in championing Palestinian statehood.

Alongside Ireland, Malta and Slovenia, Spain is among only a handful of countries in Europe in favour of this recognition, and has been encouraging its neighbours to follow suit for full recognition by this July.

Sanchez, who is a longtime supporter of Palestine's right to self-determination, said he considers recognition of statehood as a way of reaching a two-state solution. This could help end the genocide which has so far claimed over 34,000 innocent Palestinian lives.

Yet in order for Spain's proposal to have a significant impact, its call to recognise Palestinian statehood must be replicated in all major European capitals.

Historical help

Spain has been and remains an influential player in Europe given its active role in the bolstering of the European Union. It helped negotiate the treaties of Amsterdam (1997) and Lisbon (2009), which paved the way for recognising the European Council as an EU institution and the enactment of common security and foreign policies across the continent.

Spanish policy-making for the EU also involves sustained contributions in areas such as judicial cooperation, linguistic and cultural diversity as well as Europe's fight against terrorism.

Spain has also had a commendable record when it comes to the Middle East, seeking to diffuse tensions in the region. Efforts at achieving peace through dialogue and diplomacy date back to 1991, when it hosted the Madrid Conference on the Middle East.

The conference resulted in Arab and Israeli delegations agreeing to continue bilateral dialogue towards resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, despite subsequent negotiations in Washington DC in 1991 and Moscow in 1992 not yielding the desired results.

While Spain's quest to recognise Palestine may appear only symbolically significant, consider how it inspired other fellow European states to call for recognition of Palestinian statehood, or at least discuss it.

In 2014 for example, the Spanish parliament called upon its conservative Popular Party government to recognise Palestine, less than a month after the centre-left coalition in Sweden led by the Social Democratic Party held a similar parliamentary vote.

A day prior to the Madrid vote, tensions escalated in the West Bank after an attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem. This prompted Spain's conservative government to temper the wording of the non-binding parliamentary resolution, which then stated that recognition of Palestine should be subject to the consequence of direct negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships. It then passed.

Despite the last-minute dilution of the motion, Madrid's calls for Palestinian recognition back then reflected the mood in the European Union (EU), which was increasingly frustrated with Israel's continued settlement expansion and the failure of peace negotiations with Palestine led by then-US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Madrid's 2014 move thus, had a ripple effect in Europe with eight more Western European parliaments calling for the recognition of Palestine. Much of this positive momentum however, fizzled away following Daesh's attack in Paris in 2015, which sparked a conservative, far-right backlash that fomented anti-Islamic, anti-immigrant and pro-Israeli positions.

Trying again

But 10 years later, the situation has changed dramatically as Sanchez seeks regional acceptance of Spain's proposal. A genocide with more than 34,000 Palestinian deaths, the majority of them being women and children, has unfolded due to Israeli state-sponsored terrorism. The genocide is also taking place as Europe is deeply divided and polarised over its Middle East policy.

During visits abroad, Sanchez said that Spain has agreed with Malta, Slovenia and Ireland on the need for Palestinian recognition. This comes as countries such as Austria, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands who wield immense influence within the European Union continue to oppose Palestinian statehood.

Even EU member states such as the Netherlands who have not ruled out sanctions on Israel if large-scale attacks on Rafah take place, are not considering Palestinian recognition.

These realities present a challenge for the Spanish proposal. There appears to be little chance of Italy or Germany agreeing to Palestinian recognition or a downgrading of diplomatic relations with Israel with economic sanctions in place.

Despite these realities, it is critical that the cause championed by Spain and its allies does not fizzle out and stays afloat in Europe's collective consciousness. Palestinian statehood needs to gain increasing traction in European capitals given the presence of incontrovertible evidence of Israeli war crimes, sexual violence, forced displacement and ethnic cleansing.

Reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and findings from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese confirm that reasonable grounds exist to show genocide is being committed in Gaza which necessitates collective action.

The EU claims it is committed to censuring human rights abuses including displacement, as well as upholding public welfare and denouncing genocide in all its forms. Thus it is critical that Spain's proposal is taken seriously and national parliaments across the continent pass resolutions to recognise Palestinian statehood.

Failure to do so would ensure that the status quo remains. This status quo gives a free licence to Israel to eliminate the Palestinian population in Gaza. If the proposal does gain traction however, incremental steps towards holding a genocidal regime to account can be ensured alongside Palestinian statehood which has been denied to an occupied population since 1948.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's quest is a commendable one, but it needs more takers to have an everlasting impact.