Palestine Prospect

It was a significant moment in the history of the struggle of Palestinian people to get a state of their own, when French President Emmanuel Macron officially recognised the Palestinian state at the United Nations on 22 September.

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Alongside France, which co-convened the meeting with Saudi Arabia in New York, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco and Andorra said they too were recognising a Palestinian state. Leaders from Australia, Canada, Portugal and the United Kingdom, which had formally made the move to recognise Palestine a day earlier also spoke at the meeting. Macron, of course, echoed the sentiment of the leaders when he said they all gathered there because “the time has come” to do their best to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution, which almost got erased in the unprecedented offensive by Israel on Gaza in the wake of the dastardly terror attack by Hamas on innocent Israelis on 7 October, 2023. Already 147 of the 193 UN member states have formally recognised Palestinian statehood as of April. This means over 80 per cent of the international community now recognises the state of Palestine. However, the numbers do not matter much, since mere recognition is not enough. What is needed, if the goal of Palestinian statehood is to be achieved, is more action. The fact that France, England and Australia have formally endorsed the two-state solution carries some weight and makes Israel more isolated.