Belgian Foreign Minister, Maxime Prévot announced on Monday that he preparing the formal recognition of Palestine as a state, following Hamas’s announcement that it was dissolving its governing bodies in Gaza.
This announcement by the Palestinian armed group, after almost 20 years in power in this part of the Palestinian Territories, paves the way for a technocratic committee to be tasked with administering the territory.
It was also one of the conditions that the Belgian Government had agreed were necessary to begin recognition process.
Last year, Prime Minister Bart De Wever announced at the United Nations headquarters in New York that Belgium would be part of a group of states ready to recognise Palestine.
However, certain conditions were attached to such an agreement, which was only slowly reached within the government. For example, all hostages had to be released, and Hamas had to be removed from the government.
Late on Monday afternoon, the Flemish Christian democrats CD&V called for the commitments made in September within the Federal Government to be honoured.
"We reached an agreement last summer, following lengthy discussions. This agreement clearly states that recognition is possible as soon as the conditions set out – notably the dissolution of Hamas – are met. Now that Hamas is effectively stepping down from its administrative role in Gaza, Belgium must honour its word," urged Flemish Christian democrat MP, Els Van Hoof (CD&V), chair of the Chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
Vice-prime minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Prevot pictured during a plenary session of the Chamber at the Federal Parliament in Brussels, Thursday 25 June 2026. Credit: Belga / Nicolas Maeterlinck
Could the text be presented to the Council of Ministers as early as Friday? Foreign Minister Prévot (Les Engagés) did not wish to speculate. "I don’t know if we’ll be ready by Friday, but it will be on the table soon," he explained, before adding that he hoped the issue of recognition would be dealt with as quickly as possible.
Flemish green MP Meyrem Almaci (Groen) responded to Minister Prévot's announcement positively, while calling on the government to accelerate the recognition of Palestine.
"Finally, the government is looking seriously at the recognition of Palestine. After years of an apartheid regime and a genocide that has now lasted more than a thousand days, we are finally looking at how Belgium can recognise Palestine," the MP said.
"For far too long, this government has refused to draw a clear line in the sand. I now expect it to take decisive action: by recognising Palestine, by imposing a genuine import ban – not some watered-down version of it – and by immediately implementing the other measures set out in the agreement, which has been gathering dust for ten months," Almaci said.
