Several European countries are planning to recognize the Palestine as a state in United Nations. The Israel And his allies characterize the movement as a “political theater”. Palestinian rights supporters say that official recognition is simply the first step.

Her Mondaythe UN General Assembly in New York will hold a special session for the war on Gauze strip. This is a continuation of a diplomatic initiative led by France and Saudi Arabia, with the aim of reviving the solution of the two states-where Israelis and Palestinians will coexist side by side-as the only response to the conflict that lasts for decades.

At Monday’s meeting, several countries have stated that they will join more than 145 UN member states that are already recognizing a Palestinian state. Among them are included France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Australia, Luxembourg and Malta.

Most of the recent European statements in favor of the recognition of the Palestinian state are related to the continuing Israeli military campaign in Gaza, which has caused the deaths of more than 65,000 people, according to the Hamas Health Ministry. International researchers, however, estimate that the report is even higher. Last Monday, the UN International International Inquiry Committee on Occupied Palestinian territories He published a report that concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Israel and his main ally, the United Statesthey rejected the report, as well as others that came to similar conclusions, condemning any Palestinian recognition plan as a state and claiming that this would be a “reward in terrorism” – a reference to the attacks of October 7, 2023 in Israel, who were guided by the militant organization, which were guided by the militant organization. Israeli campaign in Gaza.

‘Political Theater’

Even supporters of the Palestinian case say that the recognition of Palestine as a state can prove inadequate if it is not accompanied by substantial actions.

“The western states are sufficient for symbolic movements, while the Palestinians are left without justice and without a state, with only one growing gap between lived reality and international statements,” said August in August. Ines Abdel Razek, Advocation Director at Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacybased in Ramamala, in her text on the Palestinian Think Tank Al Shabaka.

On Wednesday, his columnist Guardian Owen Jones He wrote that “every action taken against Israel is superficial, with the aim of calming the demands of public opinion on action.”

Anxiety also raises how Israel will react to a new wave of recognition, this week noted Richard Gowuan, director of the Un Office of the International Crisis Group, in an article in the American magazine Just Security.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu … has a long history defying the entire international community,” he wrote. “One scenario that worries the diplomats is that Netanyahu – who said last week that” there will be no Palestinian state ” – could respond to recognition by announcing plans for official attachment of parts of the Palestinian territories to his speech.”

Can recognition bring peace?

It is clear that the recognition of Palestine as a state in itself will not stop Israel’s war in Gaza.

“Recognition is an incorrect substitute for boycott and punitive measures that must be taken against a country committing genocide,” columnist Gidone Levi in ​​the Israeli newspaper Haaretz said in August. “Recognition is a hollow service in words. … This will not stop the genocide, which will not end without practical steps from the international community. “

As legal experts point out, the issues are separate. Whether Palestine is considered a state or not, international law already obliges other states to do what they can to prevent genocide from committing.

Diplomatic upgrade

What Palestine’s recognition could achieve is to strengthen the argument in favor of a truce within existing international diplomatic, administrative and legal frameworks.

Egyptian analyst Omar Auf pointed to the magazine’s autumn 2025 edition The Cairo Review of Global Affairs That Palestinian officials had tried in 1989 to join the Geneva contracts but were rejected by Switzerlandwhich cited “uncertainty” about the existence of a Palestinian state.

In August, Law-Yakov, a peace negotiator at Geneva Center for Security Policy, told DW that recognition “changes nothing immediately, but gives the Palestinians much stronger negotiating paper, because when you negotiate a state with a state, it is not the same as a state.”

Bilateral recognition could be considered a form of diplomatic upgrade. Countries that recognize – such as France or Belgium – should review their relations with Palestine as well as their legal obligations towards it. This, according to experts, could also lead to a revision of relations with Israel.

However, recognition must be accompanied by practical measures, Hugh Lovat, a senior researcher in the Middle East and North African program of the European Foreign Relations Council (ECFR), told DW.

“Recognition is not political; it is an opening. The real work begins the next day, “said August, Anna Iktate, Lecturer in the Middle East Political Economy at Australian National University, in a text in the magazine Akfarissued by Doha-Based Middle East Council on Global Affairs.

‘An important reassurance’

It is true that recognition is largely symbolic, the experts admit. “But symbolism is not always bad. Given the countries of recognition – in particular of France and the United Kingdom – is a major reassurance of Palestinian rights and self -determination, the right to live free from possession, the right to state status, and so on. “

However, symbolic measures must be accompanied by practical actions, he stressed.

At a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday, EU foreign policy chief Caya Callas called on Member States to increase duties on some Israeli products and impose penalties on settlers and two senior Israeli politicians. These are measures that have already proposed ECFR experts. A source in Brussels told DW that Italy, which previously resisted the interruption of EU scientific funding to Israel, may soon lift its objections.

“Even three years ago, recognition could be considered the end of the story,” Lovat said. “But I believe that, because things have changed so dramatically in public and political opinion, it is no longer a matter of either recognizing [την Παλαιστίνη] Either do something else. “

Multiple measures are currently being promoted at the same time, he continued, and this reflects how public opinion throughout the political spectrum has changed since 2023.

“Recognition must be regarded as a course,” Lovat concluded. “We may not get there tomorrow, but the direction is clear.”

Source: Deutsche Welle