Obviously, such a decision caused opposite reactions: while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed Swedish move, Israel inevitably reiterated its disappointment and the US defined it as “premature”.
Political and strategic considerations aside, the issue at hand is linked to an universally recognized right that should let people choose their own destiny in the international order and Swedish decision, as Wallstrom put it herself, should be seen as «an important step that confirms the Palestinians’ right to self-determination».
On the one hand, Sweden is the first major country in Europe to do so but, on the other one, it’s not alone: in fact, in 1988 many Eastern European countries decided to recognise it[1], followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, by Montenegro in 2006, and by Iceland in 2011.
International Recognition of the State of Palestine as of July 2011.
Source: Recognizing the Palestinian State on the 1967 border & Admission of Palestine as a Full Member of the United Nations
(PLO Negotiations Office, July 2011).
[1] Malta, Serbia, Albania, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria.
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