Italy's Chamber of Deputies rejects proposal to recognize Palestine

By Baris Seckin

ROME (AA) – Italy’s Chamber of Deputies voted Thursday against a proposal put forward by left-wing opposition parties to recognize Palestine as a state.

The rejection came from right-wing parties who hold a majority in the lower house of parliament.

The proposal was originally introduced in May by the Five Star Movement (M5S) and supported by additional motions calling for concrete steps towards the recognition of Palestine.

The motions drew inspiration from the recent decisions of Spain, Ireland and Norway to recognize the State of Palestine, urging the Italian government to follow suit.

Despite the push from the opposition, the motions were defeated by the right-wing majority.

In the aftermath, the ruling parties successfully passed their own proposal, which supports European Union initiatives and international efforts aimed at recognizing the State of Palestine within a negotiated framework of two sovereign and democratic states.

The M5S protested the vote by abstaining, criticizing the ruling parties for what they called "nice words" that did not match their actions in international contexts.

M5S Deputy Riccardo Riccardi expressed strong disapproval during discussions in the General Assembly.

Israeli "Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu is a criminal. It's disgraceful to reclassify the word 'catastrophe' as 'crisis' in a motion. What are 39,000 deaths? What is shooting at people queuing for bread? You don't care about these people," he said.

Peppe Provenzano from the main opposition Democratic Party (PD) also condemned the ongoing conflict against Palestinians and expressed concern over the inaction of the Italian government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Provenzano emphasized that Palestinians have the right to their own state.

Defending the rejection, Giangiacomo Calovini from the ruling Brothers of Italy (FdI) party expressed concern about the unilateral recognition decisions by Spain, Ireland and Norway, arguing that such actions without unanimous European Union consent weaken the bloc.

Similarly, Paolo Formentini from the far-right League party argued that "recognizing Palestine as a state would effectively reward (the Palestinian group) Hamas," thereby justifying their opposition to the motions.