Casa Árabe and the Diplomatic Mission of Palestine in Spain have organized this event, with the title of “Towards a Fair Solution: Recognition of the Palestinian State,” which, in addition to Barakeh’s speech, will include interventions by Mohammed Haneche, the Ambassador of Algeria and Dean of the Arab ambassadors in Spain; Musa Amer Odeh, Ambassador of the Diplomatic Mission of Palestine in Spain, and Eduardo López Busquets, the General Director of Casa Árabe. 

In recent weeks, the Palestinian initiative to achieve its recognition as an independent State has gained momentum in Europe. In late October, Sweden became the first EU member country to recognize the Palestinian State and to establish diplomatic relations with it. At the same time, the Spanish Parliament has joined those of the United Kingdom and Ireland and on November 18 unanimously approved a non-binding proposal in favor of recognizing Palestine as an independent State. A wave of recognitions is expected to help resume the so-called peace process and lead to a fair solution. Of the 193 member states of the United Nations, 135 (69.9%) have now recognized the State of Palestine.

Mohammed Barakeh (Shefa Amr, 1955). A Palestinian born in 1948, he is currently an Arab-Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for the Hadash Party (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality), of which he is the Secretary General. Barakeh studied mathematics at the University of Tel Aviv, where he began his political activity in the late 1970’s. He was the head of the Association of Arab Students in Israel, and was amongst the founders and main activists of “CAMPUS” (an acronym for the “Student Group for Social and Political Participation”), which joined the Jewish and Arab left in a joint struggle against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and in favor of the full equality of Arab-Israelis. After completing his studies, Barakeh returned to his native town of Shefa Amr, a city of great importance for the internal politics of Palestinians in 1948. He was elected to the Knesset for the first time in 1999 and was re-elected in 2003, 2006 and 2009. In 2003, he held the position of Vice-President of the Knesset.