UN summit boosts Palestinian hopes but Israel doubles down

After major countries recognise Palestinian statehood, Israel responds with threats to annex the West Bank. By Mel Frykberg

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After major countries recognise Palestinian statehood, Israel responds with threats to annex the West Bank. By Mel Frykberg A boy runs with a Palestinian flag atop a mound of rubble at a camp for people displaced by conflict in Bureij, in the central Gaza Strip, on 17 January after the announcement of a truce that did not last long.

(Photo: Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)

Heads of state and government gathered at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday, 22 September, for a special summit aimed at reviving the two-state solution and resolving the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The summit, held on day one of the UN General Assembly's annual September gathering of world leaders, was spearheaded by France and Saudi Arabia. A number of countries, including Australia, the UK, Canada, Portugal and France, officially announced their recognition of the State of Palestine.

Although this sparked hope, Palestinians were aware that it would not halt the continuing Israeli land grab in the occupied Palestinian West Bank or the carnage in Gaza, and would change nothing on the ground in the short term. The road to full independence would be both bloody and difficult.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted with anger, promising there would never be a Palestinian state, and adding that the move rewarded Hamas. He was supported by many Israelis, even moderate Israeli politicians such as former defence minister and centrist Benny Gantz, who also said statehood would never happen.

In 1947 the UN proposed the partitioning of Palestine into two independent states, one Palestinian Arab and the other Jewish, with Jerusalem internationalised, acting as a framework for the two-state solution.