When this child hoisted the Palestinian flag in the rubble near Bureij refugee camp in Gaza on Monday, Canada and several other countries had just recognized the state of Palestine, with more to follow.
When this child hoisted the Palestinian flag in the rubble near Bureij refugee camp in Gaza on Monday, Canada and several other countries had just recognized the state of Palestine, with more to follow.
Muslim nations have little hope that a Palestinian state will be created, despite new support from France, Canada and others
Countries in the Middle East appeared to lose hope that the formal recognition of a Palestinian state by Canada, France, Australia and others would lead to changes on the ground as Israel and the United States intensified their defiance of international calls for a two-state solution.
Palestinian statehood seemed more distant than ever as Israeli military forces on Tuesday pushed deeper into densely populated Gaza City, where casualties mounted and most hospitals were either destroyed or on the verge of shutting down from lack of fuel and medical supplies, according to doctors in the city.
Political scientists and former ambassadors in the Middle East said that the additional recognitions of a Palestinian state increased Israel’s diplomatic isolation. But they also said that the recognitions alone would probably accomplish nothing. “More recognitions are a good step,” said Mohamed El Oraby, a former Egyptian foreign minister. “The issue is whether there will actually be a Palestinian state. I think not, not in our lifetimes. With [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, there is no peace process.”
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In New York, the United Nations General Assembly exposed the chasm between Canada and many European nations on one side, and the United States and Israel on the other on the question of Palestinian statehood.
U.S. President Donald Trump, in his speech to the assembly Tuesday, fought against the idea, backing the position of Israel and a few other countries. “Now, as if to encourage continued conflict, some of this [UN] body is seeking to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state,” he said. “The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists for their atrocities.”
On Monday, just ahead of the assembly, Mr. Netanyahu vowed to prevent statehood even as a dozen more countries embraced the concept, including Belgium, Luxembourg and Malta. “I have a clear message to those leaders who are recognizing a Palestinian state after the horrendous October 7 massacre,” he said in a statement, referring to the Hamas attacks on Israel in 2023 that killed 1,200 people, most of them Israelis. “You are rewarding terror with an enormous prize. And I have another message for you: It’s not going to happen. There will be no Palestinian state west of the Jordan River.”
He vowed to “continue on this path” of building settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.
Israeli settlers in the West Bank have been increasingly bold in destroying Palestinian property, such as this plant nursery in Deir Sharaf earlier this month. New settlement plans would further isolate the Palestinian Authority offices in Ramallah from other parts of the West Bank. Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images
This area in Jabal al-Baba, part of the E1 sector of the West Bank, is slated for new settlements. The development would displace the Bedouins, who tend their sheep and goats in the area. Ammar Awad/Reuters
H.A. Hellyer, a Middle East security expert at the Royal United Services Institute in London and the Center for American Progress in Washington, does not think the expanding roster of countries recognizing a Palestinian state will slow Israel’s renewed assault in Gaza or expanded push into the West Bank.
“The Israelis and their allies are insisting that recognition is going to set things back, as it provokes Tel Aviv into further steps in the West Bank, for example,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “But the reality is that Tel Aviv has been flouting international law for decades, and has been moving towards outright annexation of at least parts of the West Bank for years, irrespective of recognition.”
The leaders of several Arab and Islamic countries that have already recognized a Palestinian state have urged their Western counterparts to put political pressure, including sanctions, on Israel. “Condemnations will not stop the missiles, declarations will not free Palestine,” Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said last week at a summit in Doha, the capital of Qatar, which a few days earlier had been hit by Israeli missiles in an attempt to assassinate Hamas ceasefire negotiators.
Open this photo in gallery: This burst of smoke over Doha earlier this month signalled a setback to Qatari-mediated peace talks. Israel's target was Hamas's senior leadership, which survived.UGC via AP
The U.S. refusal to endorse a Palestinian state could also jeopardize the Abraham Accords, the agreements signed in 2020, during Mr. Trump’s first term as president, to normalize the relationship between Israel, United Arab Emirates and a few other Arab countries (Egypt and Israel signed a peace agreement in 1979).
“The Abraham Accords are in the deep freeze, and will likely become little different than the Camp David Accords, in the sense that engagement between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi will slow, particularly if Tel Aviv decides to annex parts of the West Bank,” Mr. Hellyer said.
A meeting called by France and Saudi Arabia ahead of the UN assembly was billed as an effort to revive the near-moribund two-state solution framework, which was first agreed in 1993 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization as part of the Oslo Accords. While the borders were never determined, the new Palestinian state was to roughly include the 41-kilometre-long Gaza Strip and the West Bank. East Jerusalem was to be its capital.
“The time for peace has come, as we are just moments away from no longer being able to seize it,” French President Emmanuel Macron told the summit on Monday. “Today France recognizes the state of Palestine.”
Open this photo in gallery: France, which lit up Paris's Eiffel Tower with the Palestinian and Israeli flags this past Sunday, has been working with Saudi Arabia to revive the peace process.Christophe Ena/The Associated Press
The recognitions triggered anger from the Israeli delegation at the UN. “We will take action,” said Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, adding that the response would be outlined by Mr. Netanyahu when he addresses the general assembly on Friday.
Some Israeli ministers are calling for the annexation of large parts of the West Bank in response to the statehood declarations, so the territory couldn’t be part of a Palestinian state.
Many or most of the Palestinians who were able to flee Gaza during the war had assumed they would be able to return fairly quickly, since the Hamas-Israel conflicts since Hamas won the Palestinian elections in 2006 have lasted a few weeks or less. Today, their optimism is vanishing as the war approaches its second anniversary, leaving Gaza in ruins. The Palestinian Health Ministry says the death toll in the strip has surpassed 65,000.
“I was determined not to leave Gaza, but Israel turned it into a slaughterhouse,” said Nabeel Rushdi Alshawa, a Palestinian doctor who has been the chairman of the Palestine Hospital in Cairo since he left the strip last year. “Now more countries are recognizing Palestine, but there is nothing left to recognize. There is nothing to move back to.”
Open this photo in gallery: EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images
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Commentary
Marsha Lederman: Maybe the mothers of Israel can end this war
Thomas Juneau: Canada’s recognition is a small but necessary step
Doug Saunders: You don’t eliminate an enemy by bombing their path to retreat
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