Green Party’s motion to declare Palestine a state fails in Parliament | Stuff

Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman

The Green Party motion asking MPs to recognise Palestine as a state has failed in the House, with National and ACT MPs objecting to the effort.

Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman​ on Wednesday afternoon sought leave of the House to debate a motion asking MPs to recognise “the state of Palestine among our community of nations”.

New Zealand does not recognise Palestine as a state but supports a two-state solution to the conflict, which would mean the creation of a Palestinian state.

National Party foreign affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee told Stuff on Wednesday morning that, while the party supported a two-state solution, it would not support the motion.

“We have followed that two-state concept since it was first proposed in 1993 and there have been many attempts to get it together but it has not yet been achieved, and I think to leap ahead of the negotiations by recognising Palestine as a state is pretty much an act of bad faith,” Brownlee said.

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