The President of France, Emmanuel Macron before the United Nations General Assembly
On Tuesday, September 23, the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly began. The 193 member states gathered to discuss and negotiate relevant topics concerning the maintenance of international peace and security. In this context, a group of countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, and Portugal, will recognize the State of Palestine.
This measure aims to build an alternative Palestinian leadership to the terrorist group Hamas and to stop the massacre taking place in the Gaza Strip, which many international organizations such as Amnesty International and the United Nations itself have labeled as genocide.
This group of mostly Israel-allied Western countries justified their decision by stating that the establishment of a Palestinian state is the only path to achieving peace in the Middle East. The two-state solution, the ultimate goal of the roadmap proposed thirty years ago in the Oslo Accords, has overwhelming support from the international community. With France’s recognition, which led this collective acknowledgment, and the United Kingdom, four of the five permanent members of the Security Council now recognize the Palestinian state.
The only exception is the United States. Despite statements made during the Obama Administration regarding the need to advance the two-state solution to build a lasting peace process in the Middle East, and despite rumors of recognition of a Palestinian state by Trump, Washington remains firm in its stance of not recognizing Palestine yet.
Israel reacted to this mass recognition, claiming that urging the establishment of a Palestinian state would be a way of rewarding Hamas. It is worth noting that all states committed to recognizing Palestine as a member of the international community have condemned the attacks of October 7th and have declared that in the future Palestinian state, extremist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad should not hold power.
Two years since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, with over 60,000 Palestinians dead and around 50 Israeli hostages still in Hamas’s hands, this diplomatic strategy by Western countries seeks to approach the more moderate sectors in Israel and Palestine. However, this recognition may become merely a statement of intentions if it is not complemented with concrete actions to stop the crimes being committed in the Gaza Strip.
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