Denmark rejects proposal to recognize Palestinian state

The Danish parliament rejected a bill on the Recognition of a Palestinian State, citing a lack of necessary preconditions for such a recognition.

The bill was introduced at the end of February by four left-wing parties, however, many politicians stood against it.

"The vast majority of Danish politicians agree that there will be no lasting peace in the Middle East without a two-state solution," Sascha Faxe, MP for The Alternative said in parliament, while adding she saw recognition as a way to give rights to ordinary Palestinians.

When the bill was debated in parliament in April, Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the government could not recognize a Palestinian state.

“We cannot recognize an independent Palestinian state because the preconditions don't really exist,” he said, referring to the fact that Palestine does not have a single functioning authority or control over its territory.

Rasmussen did not attend the vote Tuesday.

Denmark's decision comes on the same day neighboring Norway, Spain and Ireland formally recognized a Palestinian state on Tuesday in what Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called a "historic decision."

More than 36,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and over 79,000 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities in Israel's onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

The attacks have pushed 85% of Gaza's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.