Malta is wrong to hesitate in recognising the Palestinian state

From Dom Mintoff’s invitation to the Palestinians to open an office in Malta in 1974 to Guido de Marco’s gesture to visit Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank and Jordan on his first overseas trip as president of the UN General Assembly in 1991, and George Vella’s efforts to bring Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy together during the Euro-Mediterranean Conference held in Malta in 1997, Malta has always supported the Palestinian cause for statehood.

Indeed, in 1988, Malta’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations in New York, Alexander Borg Olivier, presented a letter to the organisation’s secretary general in which the Maltese Government affirmed its “recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own”. And since 2009, Malta has had a representative office in the Palestinian-administered Ramallah in the West Bank.

The commitment to the Palestinian cause has been unwavering across different administrations and is one of the few issues where cross-party support has endured.

Robert Abela’s administration is also committed to this cause with Malta having brokered the first UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of hostages held by Hamas and the provision of humanitarian aid.

The current administration has also allowed injured children from Gaza to be brought over to Malta with their families for medical treatment and Abela recently joined other leaders in calling on Israel to ‘immediately’ lift the Gaza blockade.

It is within this context that the Maltese government’s reluctance so far to recognise the Palestinian state baffles us.

Ever since Abela committed the country last year to recognising a Palestinian state we keep getting the vague reply that this will happen “when the conditions are ripe”. We are never told what these conditions are; what Malta is expecting to see before it can take the next logical step in its foreign policy.

In the latest pronouncement on this issue, Abela told the Maltese parliament that developments in this regard can be expected in June. Once again, we were not told what these developments will be.

It is as if Malta does not want to be a leader in Europe on this issue, unlike Spain and Ireland that forged ahead with recognising the Palestinian state last year. The Abela administration appears more interested in following others, whoever these others may be.

Meanwhile, the prime minister appeared miffed at the questions put to him by Opposition Leader Bernard Grech and other Nationalist MPs over this issue. The questions were measured, non-partisan and reasonable as MPs sought answers on the reasons for government’s hesitation on the issue. And yet, Abela’s reply was unstatesmanlike—instead of embracing the cross-party support for the Palestinian cause and explaining what the stumbling blocks are, he hit out at Roberta Metsola for visiting Israel shortly after the October 2023 Hamas attacks.

Unfortunately, Abela could not resist taking a dig at the opposition, insisting his government would be doing more for the Palestinian cause than any other administration. It was a pathetic display of partisan politics and personal rivalry getting in the way of statesmanship. It is a pity that he scorned the opportunity to understand, embrace and explain.

Malta’s recognition of a Palestinian state will not change the course of history in the Middle East but it will be a significant gesture of solidarity with the Palestinians.

By recognising a Palestinian state, Malta will not be endorsing terrorism, or the murderous actions of Hamas, as Israel suggests. It is neither the negation of Israel’s right to enjoy peace and security. On the contrary, it is an act of goodwill that recognises the Palestinian people’s right to live free in a prosperous, peaceful and viable state.

Difficult as the circumstances are today, the two-state solution remains the only viable solution in the long term. This is the message Malta has always put forward in international forums and one which it must continue pressing on.

At the same time, Israel’s unrelenting military aggression in Gaza and its cruel aid blockade must be condemned in no uncertain terms. What we are witnessing is the annihilation of two million people, one drone attack at a time; one bullet at a time; one destroyed hospital at a time; one crippled aid truck at a time. This is not self-defence; this is genocide.