More than three decades after the Palestinians declared statehood and long after most of the international community recognized that state, a growing number of Western countries are finally catching up with the rest of the world.
The recognition of Palestine, most recently by France, Britain, Canada, Australia, and several others, has been hailed as a game changer and dismissed as meaningless political theater. It is neither, though very much depends on what comes next.
Their explanations notwithstanding, these acts of recognition need to be understood first and foremost as a response by governments aligned with Israel to growing public pressure to change course as a result of the Gaza genocide and the unprecedented shift toward support for Palestinian rights. Concluding that business as usual was no longer a viable option, these governments opted for symbolic measures like sanctioning particularly vile Israeli officials, suspending negotiations on trade agreements yet to be concluded, and most recently diplomatic recognition of Palestinian statehood.
From the perspective of these governments, the actions they chose to take were the least consequential available. They do not entail any concrete policy changes toward Israel or require them to implement significant measures such as an arms embargo, economic sanctions, judicial prosecutions, or travel restrictions. Most important, they do absolutely nothing to bring an end to the Gaza genocide.
Additionally these states have explicitly proclaimed that their purpose is to salvage the two-state paradigm and breathe new life into what they call the “peace process.” This has been accompanied with a raft of demands and conditions about Palestinian governance, political participation, and even national security policy that are typically absent from acts of recognition. The entity they would like to see has all the hallmarks of a protectorate, far removed from an independent, sovereign…
Auteur: Mouin Rabbani
