In an interview published today (Wednesday, 3 September 2025) in the leading Belgian newspaper SudInfo, Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa’ar referred to the Belgian government’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state, conditioned on the release of all the hostages and Hamas no longer being in power.
Sa’ar said: “It is a very strange decision, which was made under pressure. The question of whether a Palestinian state will exist or not is not linked to the decision of the government in Brussels, but rather to the decisions of the government in Jerusalem. We have no intention of establishing a Palestinian state, that would clearly be a terrorist state. We already tried, by the way, 20 years ago, when we completely withdrew from the Gaza Strip, dismantling all our settlements, dismantling all our military bases, even the graves in the cemeteries. Afterwards, it clearly became the emergence of the most dangerous terrorist kingdom in the world. We will not do it again, we have learned the lesson.”
Sa’ar then added: “I don’t know how the Belgian government intends to put an end to Hamas’s power. By convincing them? By begging them? Of course, we are open to a diplomatic solution. If Hamas agrees to lay down its arms and release the hostages, the war will stop tomorrow.”