Belgium to recognise Palestinian state, announces sanctions on Israel

Belgium has joined a list of countries, including France, Canada, the UK who have said that they would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly session.

A makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches across an area near the Gaza City port. (AP Photo)

2 min readSep 2, 2025 08:55 AM IST First published on: Sep 2, 2025 at 08:55 AM IST

Belgium has announced that it will recognise a Palestinian state in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) during its session this month, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said on Tuesday.

Informing about the decision, Foreign Minister Prevot said that Belgium will recognise Palestine during the UNGA session in September and also impose sanctions against the Israeli government, paving the way for a “two-state solution”.

“Palestine will be recognized by Belgium at the UN session! And firm sanctions are being imposed against the Israeli government,” Prevot wrote on X.

🇧🇪🇵🇸🚨 Palestina zal door België worden erkend tijdens de Algemene Vergadering van de VN! En er worden stevige sancties genomen ten aanzien van de Israëlische regering. Elk antisemitisme of verheerlijking van terrorisme door aanhangers van Hamas zal eveneens krachtiger worden…

— Maxime PREVOT (@prevotmaxime) September 2, 2025

Belgium has joined a list of countries, including France, Canada, the UK who have said that they would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly session which is scheduled to take place from September 9 to 23 in New York. Over a dozen Western nations have called on others to recognise Palestine.

Israel has been perturbed over the pledges made by several countries to formally recognise a Palestinian state.

Belgium has also announced that it’ll impose 12 “firm” sanctions on Israel such as a ban on importing products from its settlements, a review of public procurement policies with Israeli companies and declaring Hamas leaders persona non grata in Belgium, its foreign minister said.

The Palestinians have long sought a state in the Israeli occupied West Bank and Gaza, however, the United States says that such a state can only come into existence after a direct negotiation is carried out between Israelis and Palestinians.

Prevot said Belgium, which is a member of the European Union, took the decision to put pressure on the Israeli government and Gaza based militant group Hamas.

“This is not about punishing the Israeli people, but rather about ensuring that its government respects international and humanitarian law and taking action to try to change the situation on the ground,” Prevot added.