“A bad decision”, according to the counselor at the Israeli embassy in France

Three European countries, Ireland, Norway and Spain, announced on Wednesday May 22 the recognition of a Palestinian state. “It’s a bad decision,” criticizes on franceinfo Daniel Halevy-Goetschel, counselor at the Israeli embassy in France. The diplomat confirms that the “Israeli ambassadors in these countries will be brought back for consultation and to decide what happens next.”

The diplomat reminds the Jewish State “always” had the same “position”, namely to consider that “the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be done through negotiations” and not “cannot be imposed by the international community”. However, for Daniel Halevy-Goetschel, the recognition of a Palestinian state by three European countries makes “Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are more difficult.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz reacted Wednesday in a press release to the initiative of the three countries. They want to send “a message to the Palestinians and the whole world : terrorism pays. After the terrorist organization Hamas carried out the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, after committing the most horrific sexual crimes the world has known, these countries chose to reward Hamas and Iran and recognize a Palestinian State”, he denounced. He described this approach as‘”injustice towards the memory of the victims of October 7″ and felt that she was wearing “undermining Israel’s right to self-defense.”

The war was sparked by the Hamas attack on October 7 which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures. 252 people were taken as hostages. 124 are still held in Gaza, including 37 dead according to the army. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas. Its offensive in the Gaza Strip resulted in the deaths of at least 35,647 people, most of them civilians, according to data from Hamas’s health ministry in Gaza.