PNN – Experts on international issues examined the consequences of some countries’ official announcements of recognizing the state of Palestine in international forums.
On the eve of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, and in light of the Zionist regime’s continuing crimes and genocide in Gaza, some countries, including England, Australia, Canada, and Portugal, officially announced that they recognize the State of Palestine. Today, a number of other countries, including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Malta, are scheduled to join this process and recognize the state of Palestine.
Al Jazeera News Network, in a report, discusses the political and legal consequences of this action and predicts that as a result of this process, the number of countries that recognize Palestine will reach 159 out of 193 UN member states.
Which countries have not yet recognized Palestine?
Currently, nearly 75 percent of the 193 UN member states have recognized the State of Palestine; however, at least 45 countries, including the United States and the Zionist regime and its allies, have not recognized the Palestinian state. In Asia, Japan, South Korea and Singapore do not recognize Palestine. Cameroon in Africa and Panama in Latin America and most of the small countries of Oceania, which the Zionists usually exploit to pass their desired resolutions, have not yet recognized Palestine.
There is the greatest disagreement on this issue in Europe, with almost half of the countries not recognizing the formation of the state of Palestine.
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What does it mean to recognize the state of Palestine?
According to the BBC World Service website, Palestine is a country that both exists and does not exist. The country (the Palestinian Authority) enjoys a significant degree of international recognition, diplomatic missions abroad, and teams that participate in sporting competitions, including the Olympics. But due to a long-standing dispute with Israel, it has no clear international borders, a defined capital, or an army. Due to Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority, established under peace agreements in the 1990s, does not have full control over its land and people. Gaza, where Israel is also the occupying power, is currently embroiled in a devastating war.
Given its semi-dependent status as a quasi-independent state, recognizing it is partly symbolic. It would make a strong moral and political statement, but it would not bring about tangible change on the ground.
But this symbolism is effective. Former British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in his speech to the United Nations in July: The UK has a special responsibility to support the two-state solution.
He referred to the 1917 Balfour Declaration – a document signed by his former counterpart as Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, which for the first time stated Britain’s support for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.
Israel was founded in 1948, but efforts to create a parallel Palestinian state have stalled for a number of reasons. As Lamy said, politicians have become accustomed to repeating the phrase “two-state solution.” The two-state solution refers to the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. But international efforts to achieve a two-state solution have failed, and Israel’s colonization of large parts of the West Bank, which is illegal under international law, has reduced the concept to an almost meaningless slogan.
Roman Lubov, a professor of international law at the University of Aix-Marseille in southern France, described the recognition of the state of Palestine as one of the most complex issues in international law. He told AFP that countries are free to choose the timing and form of recognition, and that there are many explicit or implicit differences in how countries interact with this phenomenon.
According to Lubov, there is no center for registering countries’ recognition. He added: The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank registers the names of countries that have recognized Palestine, but this is a completely subjective measure.
Another point raised in international law is that “recognition does not mean the creation of a state, just as lack of recognition does not prevent the existence of a state.” Of course, recognition has largely symbolic and political weight. Therefore, currently, three-quarters of the world’s countries believe that Palestine has all the necessary requirements to be a state.
Political and legal consequences of Palestine’s recognition in international forums
Al Jazeera adds that this recognition is an important step for Palestine, as it has political and legal consequences. This event will cause extremists to boycott the Zionist regime’s cabinet.
The Palestinian Authority considers the recognition of this state to be of political and legal importance and considers it in line with efforts to end the occupation and establish a Palestinian state.
Ahmed al-Dik, political advisor to the PA’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Refugees, stated in an interview with Al Jazeera that Palestine considers this action “a courageous act in line with international law and resolutions of international legitimacy, and a support for efforts to end the occupation and achieve peace, as well as an affirmation of Palestinian rights, especially the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.”
He added that Palestine will act on these recognitions to achieve full membership in the United Nations instead of observer status, and to maximize political, diplomatic, legal and international efforts to achieve several goals, including:
Accountability and trial of the occupiers for their crimes.
Ending the occupiers’ unilateral actions until the implementation of international legitimacy resolutions and the Arab peace plan.
Strengthening the legal personality and recognized jurisdiction of the State of Palestine.
Strengthening and developing the relations of the State of Palestine with various countries in numerous fields.
This Palestinian official listed the political and protocol benefits of recognition in international forums, including the following:
Upgrading the level of representation of the embassies of the State of Palestine from delegations to embassies, and raising the Palestinian flag.
In some countries, the credentials of ambassadors of the State of Palestine will be presented to the highest governing level in those countries as ambassadors of the State of Palestine.
Why is this symbolic gesture important?
Bilal Al-Shubaki, a professor of political science at Hebron University, spoke to Al Jazeera about the importance of increasing the number of countries that recognize Palestine in the face of the Zionist regime’s efforts to erase the Palestinian issue and the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state, saying: These recognitions have been timed in line with the policies of the Zionist regime to thwart the “two-state” solution.
The Zionists will intensify repression in Palestine.
The political analyst says that this step – despite its importance – seems very insignificant and limited, because the current priority for every Palestinian citizen is to stop the genocide in the Gaza Strip.
In response to the recognition of Palestine, Al-Shubaki predicted the expansion of the Zionist regime’s repression in the West Bank, adding: What Israel is doing in reality is turning international recognition from an action with practical impact into a purely psychological event.
Recognition of Palestine has purely symbolic dimensions
On the other hand, “Adnan Hamidan,” an expert on British affairs, emphasized that Britain’s recognition of the State of Palestine carries important messages and is considered more than a political declaration, because the country played an important role in the suffering and problems of the Palestinians by issuing the Balfour Declaration and now finds itself forced to recognize the State of Palestine.
The Palestinian expert added that this action does not compensate for the occupiers’ crime of stabilizing the Palestinian land in favor of the Zionists, but it is considered a fundamental change in British political discourse and, for the Palestinians in Gaza, it carries a message to the world that their narrative is true and that their right to their land and freedom cannot be destroyed over time.
Hamidan continued that this decision will not change the balance of power on the ground, but it will affect symbolic stances and become a political tool that Palestinians can use against the Zionists in diplomatic arenas.
A late and meaningless step
On the other hand, settlement expert Suhail Khaliliya said about the possible actions of the Zionist regime in response to the wave of recognition of Palestine: Accelerating settlement construction in the E1 project located in East Jerusalem and swallowing up several other Palestinian villages in Jerusalem and annexing them to the occupied lands could be among these measures.
At the same time, he described this move as belated and emphasized: The recognitions might have had some content or meaning if they had been made, for example, 20 years ago, but they came late and Tel Aviv will exploit them to achieve its goals.