France and about 10 countries in the United Nations joined more than 140 other nations recognizing Palestine as a sovereign state in a symbolic diplomatic move aimed at pressuring Israel to end its war on Gaza. Yet, the formal recognition leaves major questions regarding the viability of a territory devastated by a nearly two-year war that has shrunk its population, fragmented its borders and left large parts of the enclave in ruins.
On Sept. 22, French President Emmanuel Macron declared his country’s recognition of Palestine before other world leaders as he delivered a decisive statement during the reconvening of the two-state solution conference, held in July. The forum held on Monday occurred at the start of the high-level week of the UN General Assembly session. Macron greeted diplomats assembled in the enthusiastic, crowded UN chamber, clearly relishing the moment.
The decision by France, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, marks a turning point in the country’s Mideast policy and was described by Macron, who led the Sept. 22 conference with the co-chair, Saudi Arabia, as a step “towards justice, peace, and the fulfillment of the UN Charter’s initial promise to the Palestinian people.”
“The time has come,” Macron said in his speech.“Nothing justifies the ongoing war in Gaza. Nothing. On the contrary, everything compels us to definitively end it. Since we didn’t do it earlier, we must do this to save the lives of Israeli hostages detained in atrocious conditions, the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians who are tormented by hunger, suffering, and the fear of dying.”
The United States and Israel boycotted the conference, with Ambassador Danny Danon of the latter calling it a “charade” right before the meeting began.
While the wave of recognition by about 10 more countries since the July conference — including Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Luxembourg, Malta and Portugal — signals the frustration of Western countries over how Israel has conducted its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, experts say the step may be several months too late. (In Europe, two major countries, Germany and Italy, have so far not recognized Palestine as a state.)
The prolonged war has flattened the enclave, and the increasing illegal annexation of more territory in the West Bank by Israeli settlers makes it almost impossible for the physical territory of a Palestinian state to be contiguous.
“There is a dark irony here,” said Max Rodenbeck, the International Crisis Group’s project director for Israel-Palestine. “Palestine is getting stronger in the world’s imagination, even as it is fading away on the ground.”
This irony is not lost on diplomats who have been unable to secure a lasting ceasefire in the conflict. The UN Security Council has been paralyzed with division among the veto-wielding permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the US — and majority-adopted resolutions in the 193-member General Assembly have altogether done little to change the physical plight for the millions of starving, constantly displaced civilians in Gaza.
“This conference and the New York Declaration will face criticism,” Annalena Baerbock, president of the 80th session of the General Assembly, said on Sept. 22. “Some will say a piece of paper cannot change realities on the ground for Palestinians. Others will dismiss the vision of two states outright.”
The New York Declaration, while indeed a piece of paper, was endorsed by 142 countries at the two-state solution conference’s gathering in late July, when France and Saudi Arabia drew dozens of countries to the UN to commit to recognizing Palestine’s statehood. Among the breakthroughs in the declaration are signatories’ demanding that Hamas disarm and disavow their role in governing postwar Gaza.
In the last 24 hours, at least 91 Palestinians were reportedly killed while trying to leave Gaza City, where the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, have intensified their ground incursion to try to kill remaining Hamas in the northern part of the enclave.
Data collected by Acled, an independent violence-tracking organization, suggests that 15 of every 16 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military since its stepped-up offensive in Gaza began in March are civilians. The Gaza Health Ministry reports that at least 65,344 Palestinians have been killed in the enclave since the war began in October 2023.
Many UN member states are rallying behind the creation of two sovereign states existing side by side with separate capitals and borders based on the June 4, 1967, lines, but few Palestinians and Israelis favor a confederation with shared governance for common interests, such as public health and infrastructure.
A Land for All, an Israeli-Palestinian political initiative, promotes decoupling of citizenship and residency as an alternative to the UN-backed two-state framework that promotes two capitals and a fortified border, with citizenship tied to the separate states. The model proposes two independent states with clear borders drawn on the basis of the 1967 lines, but which allow for freedom of movement across them.
May Pundak and Rula Hardal, co-directors of the initiative, told PassBlue in a statement that the two-state solution, as proposed by the UN and its member states, ignores both Palestinian and Israeli attachment to the whole land and the interdependence of their daily lives.
“Separation behind walls has never delivered security or peace,” the directors said in their email to PassBlue.
Regardless of what form a two-state solution may take, if it ever materializes, the Israeli government is steadfastly against the creation of an independent state of Palestine. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sept. 21 that there will be no such state, notably after Australia, Britain and Canada, some of Israel’s strongest allies, announced they would recognize Palestine.
Speaking at a press briefing minutes before the UN conference on Sept. 22, titled the “High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution,” Danon of Israel said the gathering “came to life from domestic interests” and was celebrated by Hamas as a “fruit of October 7.” He accused world leaders, including Macron, of abandoning Israeli hostages.
“Israel is committed to continuing this war until we bring back all the hostages and until Hamas is out of the game completely,” Danon told journalists at the UN. “That will be the time that we can speak about the future, not before.”
When asked by a journalist whether Israel still supports a two-state solution, Danon said that “after October 7, it’s off the table.” He added that negotiations would be possible only under a “genuine Palestinian leadership that condemns terrorism,” noting that the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas pays salaries to alleged terrorists.
Abbas, speaking from his headquarters in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, by pre-recorded video to the General Assembly conference, having been denied with his delegation visas to attend the UN high-level week physically, said the Palestinian Authority, or PA, is ready to assume full responsibility for Gaza. That includes setting up an interim administrative committee, with international and Arab backing, and insisting that Hamas would have “no role in governing.” He called for Hamas and other militants to surrender their weapons to the PA to establish “one unified state, without weapons, under one law and one legitimate security force.”
He also outlined reforms, including abolishing previous payments to prisoners’ families, introducing a unified social welfare system under international audit, and committing to presidential and parliamentary elections within one year of the war’s end.
“We will draft an interim constitution within three months to ensure the transfer of power from the authority to the state,” Abbas said. “This will ensure that no party or individual will participate unless they adhere to the political program and the international commitments of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the rules of international legitimacy.”
Additionally, he wished Jewish people worldwide a “good new year,” referring to the Rosh Hashanah holiday.
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Damilola Banjo is an award-winning staff reporter for PassBlue who has covered a wide range of topics, from Africa-centered stories to gender equality to UN peacekeeping and US-UN relations. She also oversees all video production for PassBlue. She was a Dag Hammarskjold fellow in 2023 and a Pulitzer Center postgraduate fellow in 2021. She was part of the BBC Africa team that produced the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Sex for Grades.” In addition, she worked for WFAE, an NPR affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. Banjo has a master’s of science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an undergraduate degree from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
