<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Spain, Ireland and Norway said Wednesday that they would recognize a Palestinian state on May 28, a step toward a long-held Palestinian aspiration that came amid international outrage over the civilian death toll and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip following Israel’s offensive.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">The almost simultaneous decisions by two European Union countries, and Norway, may generate momentum for the recognition of a Palestinian state by other EU countries and could spur further steps at the United Nations, deepening Israel’s isolation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Currently, seven member of the 27-nation European Union officially recognize a Palestinian state. Five of them are former east bloc countries who announced recognition in 1988, as did Cyprus, before joining the bloc. Sweden announced recognition in 2014.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Czech Republic, an EU member, says that the 1988 recognition by the former Czechoslovakia, of which it then formed a part, does not apply to the modern state. Slovakia’s Foreign Ministry says that the two sides confirmed their recognition as Slovakia was becoming independent in 1992-93, and that the Palestinian state has a fully-functioning embassy in Bratislava since 2006.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some 140 of the about 190 countries represented in the U.N. have already recognized a Palestinian state. - AP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd/fas</div>