What does it really mean to recognize the Palestinian state?

BarcelonaThe United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Portugal announced their recognition of Palestine this Sunday. States such as France, Malta, and Luxembourg are also expected to recognize the Palestinian state this week, coinciding with the UN General Assembly being held in New York. Spain, for its part, recognized it last year, although there is no consensus within the EU, and Germany is openly opposed. But what does the recognition of Palestine as a state actually mean?

Which countries recognize Palestine?

With the new additions, more than 150 of the 193 full members of the United Nations have recognized the Palestinian state. Thus, as of next week, only one permanent member of the UN Security Council will not recognize it: the United States. France will recognize it this week, while the United Kingdom, Russia, and China have already recognized it.

Within the EU, opinions are divided: Spain and Ireland took the step in May of last year, along with Norway, which is not a member of the Union. Sweden recognized Palestine in 2014, when the Social Democrats were still in power. Cyprus had recognized it in 2011, and before that, in 1988, the countries that then belonged to the USSR: Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Romania. The Vatican, which is a UN observer, has also recognized Palestine. In 2012, Palestine was recognized as a non-member observer state at the UN by a vote of 138 in favor, 9 against, and 41 abstentions.

Does a Palestinian state exist?

The Palestinian people have never had their right to self-determination recognized. For centuries, they were under the yoke of the Ottoman Empire, until after the First World War, they became a British protectorate (in the division of the Middle East between France and Great Britain). This led, after the Second World War and against the backdrop of the Holocaust, to the creation of the State of Israel, under Israeli patronage. These powers dictated a partition in a UN resolution that envisioned two states, one Jewish and one Arab, which clearly benefited Jewish colonialism. The State of Israel proclaimed in 1948 did not respect the plan and forcibly displaced more than 700,000 Palestinians from their towns and villages.

In November 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) adopted a declaration of independence proclaiming a Palestinian state on the basis of the 1947 UN Partition Plan. This was followed by the First Intifada, which ended with the Accords. The Palestinian Authority was established on the borders following the 1967 war, internationally recognized but without the powers of an independent state, while the Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank, remain under Israeli occupation.

What changes with recognition?

Recognition of the Palestinian state changes nothing on the ground, but it has political value. It is a way to strengthen what the French government, like the EU and the United States, consider the solution to the conflict: the so-called two-state solution, in which the Jewish state coexists peacefully alongside the Palestinian state. This solution was already attempted in 1993, in the so-called Oslo process, which failed due to Israel's refusal to accept the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the continued colonization of the occupied territories, the opposition of Hamas and other Palestinian parties, and the role of ultra-Orthodox settlers. In the context of the aftermath of Israel's genocidal offensive in Gaza and with the recent passage in the Israeli Parliament of a law to annex the West Bank, it is even less clear whether this solution can be viable.