Maldives welcomes decision by countries that newly recognise Palestine, calls for others to join

Maldives has welcomed the seven countries which have newly made the decision to recognise Palestine as a state, and called on the remaining countries to follow suite.

In a post sent out social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Maldives said that the country welcomes "the decision by several countries to recognise Palestine," which consists of Norway, Spain and Ireland who have announced that they will officially recognise Palestine as a state on 28th May, along with the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica as well as Barbados.

"Maldives calls on those nations that have not done so, to adhere to the stance to support the Palestinian people in their quest to establish an independent and sovereign state," the post reads.

Although previously not considered, the ongoing genocide in Palestine which was aggravated since 7th October 2023 and has since claimed the lives of over 35,000 Palestinian lives and injured around 80,000 people, has resulted in several European countries to change their stance on whether to recognise Palestine as an independent state.

As of recent, Slovenia has also joined in and announced that it will recognise a Palestinian state by June 13th. However, countries like Germany and France are standing by their decision to not take the leap.

Germany believes that the matter requires a political solution between Palestine and Israel while France argues that it does not believe the recognition of Palestine "would make a contribution now."

European Union (EU)'s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, however, has said that the 27-member bloc should find common ground after Spain and Ireland joined Norway in announcing they would recognise Palestinian statehood.

The Palestinian authority has announced that so far, 137 of the 193 UN member states have accepted Palestinian statehood.

Palestine's ethnic cleansing by Israeli forces began as early as the 1948 Nakba and since then Palestine has become a besieged enclave overtime.

The current events taking place in Palestine began on October 7th after Hamas initiated an attack on Israel, killing over 800 and capturing 240 hostages according to Israeli authorities. Since then Israel has initiated a war against Palestinians with the claim of wanting to eliminate Hamas and rescue the hostages.

However, during this time Israel's forces have bombed hospitals and schools, designated safety routes for evacuation, carpet bombed residential areas, while necessary humanitarian aid remains blocked into Gaza strip through Rafah borders.

Citing multiple war crimes committed by Israel, South Africa initiated legal action against Israel at the ICJ which issued a temporary refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza. However, compliance is yet to be seen.