Copenhagen is not prepared to recognize a Palestinian state, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said on Sunday, speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem with his Israeli counterpart.
“We are not ready yet to recognize, but our position is that we cannot allow anyone to have a de facto veto over the Danish position,” Rasmussen said during remarks alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, referencing Jerusalem’s criticism of initiatives to recognize “Palestine.”
“Our position so far has been that we are ready to recognize when there’s a negotiated two-state solution,” the European diplomat continued, saying that his centrist government would never recognize a Palestinian state ruled by Hamas “or any other terrorist organization.
“It comes with a lot of preconditions,” Rasmussen said, “a disarmed Palestinian state, recognizing Israel, transparency, democracy—you can’t run for elections if you don’t recognize the sovereignty of Israel.
“That is our position and I really hope that we, in the foreseeable future, can start working together in achieving this, and make this vision more clear for people in Israel, Palestine and across the world,” he added.
The Israeli government has recently warned key European nations that any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state could prompt Jerusalem to extend its sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria.
In February 2024, the Knesset plenum voted 99-11 to back a Cabinet decision to reject any unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood.
All coalition members and most lawmakers of the Zionist opposition parties voted to support the Cabinet statement against “international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians.”
The most important fact
Sa’ar told reporters on Sunday, “Those states that support statehood for the Palestinians now ignore the most important fact: they demonstrate that the P.A.—according to what they do—they don’t deserve a state.”
The Palestinian Authority promised to fight terrorism as part of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, but “they have never done that,” according to Sa’ar.
Instead, “they reward and encourage terrorism by the pay-for-slay doctrine, by paying salaries for terrorists and terrorists’ families,” continued Sa’ar, urging Rasmussen not to “ignore this reality.
“In Judea and Samaria and in [the] Gaza Strip, demanding for Israel to risk its future and security; we will simply not do that,” he concluded.
In a subsequent X post, Sa’ar said he held “a constructive conversation on the situation in Gaza and the region” with his Danish counterpart.
“I said that current attempts to recognize a ‘Palestinian state’ are a huge mistake, which harm the chances of achieving peace,” said Jerusalem’s top diplomat, who added that “Europe is facing security and strategic challenges. It needs Israel as much as Israel needs Europe.”
Last month, Sa’ar said that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen “insulted” the Israel and its democracy when she told a local newspaper that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu constitutes “a problem.”
The Danish prime minister’s comments in an Aug. 16 interview were “not respectful of Israeli democracy, of the choice of the Israeli people, and of the Israeli parliament,” Sa’ar said.
Frederiksen, a leader of the Social Democrats party, had said that her frustration with Netanyahu was tied to her inability to influence him.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Netanyahu today poses a challenge. You can see clearly that we have a very, very difficult time influencing what happens in Israel,” the center-left leader said in the interview.
