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Dublin: 8 °C Thursday 23 May, 2013

Sweden upgrades Palestinian diplomatic status

Swedish lawmakers have upgraded Palestinian diplomatic status but rejected an amendment calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state.

Image: chaoss via Shutterstock

SWEDEN HAS BECOME the ninth European country to upgrade the status of a Palestinian representative office to that of an embassy.

Parliament voted by an overwhelming majority to ratify a June 28 agreement between Stockholm and Ramallah on upgrading the Palestinian Authority’s mission here.

The agreement gives the Palestinian Authority’s representation in Sweden “the same privileges, immunities, exemptions and privileges as embassies and their representatives.”

But lawmakers rejected an amendment calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state, with 179 votes against and 140 votes in favour of the proposal.

In November, Sweden backed a resolution recognising the Palestinians as a non-member observer state at the UN, but members of the ruling centre-right coalition disagree on the issue of recognising Palestinian statehood.

Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Cyprus are the other European countries to have given Palestinian representation the status of an embassy.

- © AFP, 2013

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Comments (13 Comments)

  • One more step on a long road to recognizing a people who want self-determination and the removal of military threat and economic strangulation from their neighbors…. why it takes so long beats me … but it is progess :)

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  • What status have they in Ireland

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  • Whose permission do we have to ask, to grant them embassy rights here? America, UK, Germany ………….

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  • Gilmore scratching his head wondering what to do now. Ask Shatter – he makes all your decisions if they involve Israel Eamon.

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  • @ Please John McG….enlighten us with your version of events?

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  • Who gave the 5th reich (Israel,an enclave of Palestinian land occupied by Eastern European and American religious fanatics) diplomatic rights?

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  • Please read up on the history of this conflict. The amount of people who think this started because Israel invaded the Palestinians is frightening. Spend a bit of time on research, I think you should be familiar with a couple of atrocities from each side before you can begin to understand this conflict. Unfortunately there is plenty of atrocities on both sides to go around.

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    • Yes but Palestinians had their statehood removed and a “Jewish” state which by its very nature is unwelcoming to non Jews was founded. We have recognised on Ireland the importance of separation of church and state in ensuring the proper functioning of democracy and the protection of all citizens. This state made some very grave mistakes while under the influence of the Catholic Church. Israel suffers from a similar lack of logic and democracy due to the entanglement of religious beliefs with the state. Regardless of atrocities that have occurred in the past the children born in Palestine today have no state. They have no passports. If they leave they will probably never return. That is an awful way to dehumanise a person. To remove their statehood their property rights, their sense of belonging. Similar things were done to the Jews in Germany and Austria in the 1930s. And all it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to stand idle….

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    • Just as the historical conflict in Ireland – the Scot surplanters were not to blame it was the native mere Irish that started the problem by being of the wrong race and wrong religion and not understanding God s holy will. Perhaps Palestinians should study Irish History and understand they are in the wrong whilst we Irish head to Turkey to reclaim Galicia and Ukraine to reclaim Galicia land given to us by our Gods and stolen from us when we moved out 2000 years ago . Perhaps we Gaels had no mail forwarding service when St Paul wrote his 3rd letter to the Galicians. Past me sunglasses so I do not have to see the blatantly obvious Zionist bias in Your statements in case I offend Jehovah . If I say Shitner is a Zionist bigot does that make me anti Semite or just truthful?

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    • “we shall endeavour to expel the poor population across the border unnoticed — the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.” – Theodore Herzl, diary 1895.

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  • Who cares. As long as they keep their messy lives to themselves let them keep going at it.

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