A bill (decree) has been passed in the Parliament of the European country of Slovenia to recognize Palestine as a state. This bill was passed on Tuesday local time.

Last week, three European countries Spain, Norway and Ireland recognized Palestine as a state, and the Slovenian government took the same initiative. Following this, the bill has been passed in the country’s parliament.

51 out of 90 members of Slovenia’s parliament voted in favor of the government-backed bill. Before this, the bill was debated in the parliament for six hours.

At this time, the parliamentarians of the country’s opposition boycotted the voting. One of them was present during the voting. But did not vote.

The opposition demanded a referendum on the recognition of Palestine. However, the 52 MPs who voted in favor of the bill rejected the proposal.

Following the vote, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golub made a post on social media X (formerly Twitter). In it, he wrote, today this initiative to recognize Palestine as an independent and sovereign state will send a message of hope to the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.

Earlier, Spain, Ireland and Norway recognized Palestine on May 28. Among the 27 member states of the European Union (EU), Sweden, Cyprus, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria have already recognised. Malta has also announced to follow the same path.

Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year. At least 1 thousand 139 people were killed in the country. Hamas fighters captured about 250 people from Israel and took them to Gaza in Palestine.

Since that day, Israeli forces have continued to attack the Gaza Strip indiscriminately. More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed so far. About 82 thousand people were injured.