LUXEMBOURG - Recognizes Palestinian State

Prime Minister Luc Frieden and Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel told a parliamentary commission that the final decision will be announced in coordination with France, Belgium, and other countries. Local reports said the timing is planned for the UN session in New York, where several European leaders are expected to formalize recognition.

Belgium and the United Kingdom have also indicated they will recognize Palestinian statehood, moves that have intensified Israel’s diplomatic challenges amid its ongoing war in Gaza.

European Union leaders have taken an increasingly critical line. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a speech to the European Parliament that the bloc would propose sanctions on extremist Israeli ministers and partially suspend the EU’s association agreement with Israel, which governs trade relations. “What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world,” she said.

The UN General Assembly endorsed a declaration calling for “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” toward a two-state solution ahead of its September 22 session.

-themedialine.org, 16 September 2025

Commentary: Luxembourg is home to the administrative Parliament of the European Union. Its population stands at 671,254 (2024 estimate), of which 51.2% are foreign-born. Thus, the majority are immigrants (mainly from other EU countries). Their life expectancy, according to the CIA Factbook, is 83.4 years (2024). Luxembourg is listed as the fourth richest country measured by real GDP per capita at $120,200 (2024), which is down from $132,600 in 2022.

This super-rich, successful country quite naturally follows the spirit of Europe. While at the moment, some European nations will not recognize a Palestinian state, we think it is only a matter of time.

Of interest is what the Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world.” In plain words, it’s Israel’s fault; they are not supposed to provide security for their citizens. They are not supposed to do their duty to find the murderous criminals and bring them to justice.

Here we are reminded of Psalm 2:1-3: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” It is refreshing that verse 4a reads: “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.” Why? Verse 6 answers: “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.”

Zionism will triumph; terrorism will not. Yet these nations desperately try to reward Hamas, the horrible, murderous terrorist organization with their attack upon Israel’s civilian population on 7 October 2023.

It stands to reason that when nations recognize the non-existent state of Palestine, terrorism is being rewarded. While these government officials present a high degree of education and sophistication, they still fall under the judgment the prophet Jeremiah proclaimed some 2,500 years ago: “Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad” (Jeremiah 51:7). And Revelation 18:3 confirms: “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.”