European parliament votes to recognise Palestinian state

Israel has been hammered by a series of diplomatic rebuffs across Europe after the European parliament voted overwhelmingly for qualified recognition of the Palestinian state. The vote on Wednesday came on the same day as a meeting of signatories to the Geneva conventions warned that Israel must respect international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territories. The rare international meeting in Switzerland of the high contracting parties to the Geneva conventions was boycotted by Israel, the US, Canada and Australia. In a further upset for Israel, the EU’s second-highest court ordered the removal of Hamas from a terrorist blacklist, citing legal problems with the listing, though it added that the Islamist group’s assets would remain frozen for three months pending an almost certain appeal. The Guardian