Rami Hamdallah, the head of the Palestinian Authority (PA) government in Ramallah, on Monday called on Norway to recognize “Palestine”.
His call came during a meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide in Ramallah, reported the official PA news agency Wafa.
Hamdallah informed Eriksen Søreide of the consequences of U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and Washington’s threats to cut off funding for UNRWA, the UN agency for “Palestinian refugees”.
He stressed that the U.S., with its recent steps, has undermined the two-state solution, according to Wafa.
Hamdallah called on world countries, particularly Norway, to recognize a Palestinian state with eastern Jerusalem as its capital. Such a move, he claimed, would salvage the two-state solution and send a clear message to the U.S. and Israel that there is support for this solution.
The PA is stepping up its efforts to bypass negotiations with Israel by achieving recognition of a Palestinian state.
A PA official recently said France would be willing to recognize “Palestine”, if other European countries join it in doing so. However, at a meeting last month with PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, French President Emmanuel Macron ruled out recognizing “Palestine” as a state unilaterally.
On Sunday, PA officials indicated that Abbas will meet with the EU's foreign ministers on January 22 in Brussels and will ask them to recognize a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 territories with eastern Jerusalem as its capital.
These moves by the PA are in response to Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem, which angered PA officials.
Recent reports indicated the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) would discuss declaring areas liberated by Israel in 1967 as "a state under occupation" at an upcoming meeting.