Plans by Ireland, Norway and Spain to recognize “Palestine” only seven months after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre constitute a reward for terrorism, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday night.
“Eighty percent of the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria support the terrible massacre of Oct. 7. This evil cannot be given a state,” Netanyahu stressed in a Hebrew-language video statement posted to social media.
“This would be a terrorist state. It will try to repeat the massacre of Oct. 7 again and again,” he said, stressing that Israel “will not consent to this.”
The premier concluded: “Rewarding terrorism will not bring peace and neither will it stop us from defeating Hamas.”
פרס לטרור לא יביא שלום. pic.twitter.com/AOoGi3E3eg
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 22, 2024
Netanyahu spoke after Norway, Ireland and Spain announced their recognition of a Palestinian state, in decisions that the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and the Hamas terrorist organization lauded.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry denounced the move as a reward for the atrocities Hamas committed on Oct. 7, including the murder of some 1,200 people. “Today’s decision sends a message to the Palestinians and the world: Terrorism pays,” tweeted top diplomat Israel Katz.
According to Palestinian polls, 89% of Palestinians support establishing a government that includes or is led by Hamas. Only around 8.5% said they favor an authority controlled exclusively by Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction.
