Major Western countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, and Portugal, among others, recognized a Palestinian state on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, in a rather symbolic move after almost two years of continuing Israeli genocide in Gaza.
WHY NOW?
Israel’s unfolding Gaza genocide, enabled by the U.S. and Western complicity, has seen growing global, popular outrage. And as the Israeli government disregarded basic calls for humanitarian access and bombed a sovereign state like Qatar, attempting to target the negotiation team, a reaction was inevitable. Western capitals opted for the symbolic diplomatic gesture of recognizing a Palestinian state, rather than exerting real pressure on Israel to halt its ongoing genocide or holding the perpetrators accountable before a court of justice.
This recent wave of recognition, built on the initiative led by France and Saudi Arabia in late July through the “International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution,” led to the “New York Declaration”. It was endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 12, 2025. The declaration calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages held in Gaza, and the establishment of a Palestinian State that is both viable and sovereign. It also calls for the disarmament of Hamas and its exclusion from governance in Gaza, normalization between Israel and the Arab countries, as well as collective security guarantees.
