Every year, leaders from around the globe descend upon the UN headquarters in New York to take part in the United Nations General Assembly. This year’s theme was “Better Together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights.” There was a lot at stake, with the wars in Gaza and Ukraine taking up a lot of the attention.
The Trump administration did not grant visas to the Palestinian representatives for the UNGA, so the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, addressed the audience by video.
At the start of the General Assembly, France and Saudi Arabia jointly convened and chaired a session on formally recognizing the state of Palestine. A growing number of countries have joined the chorus, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal.
“We recognized the state of Israel more than 75 years ago as a homeland for the Jewish people,” said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “Today, we join over 150 countries who recognize a Palestinian state, also.”
Some of these nations are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and their declaration marked a symbolic milestone for Palestinians.
The move came about a week after a UN inquiry found that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
Israel has dismissed the report as “distorted and false.”
“This is one step forward towards Palestinians getting and regaining control over their own borders, over their own land,” said Shahd Hammouri, who teaches at the University of Kent in the UK. She has also consulted on legal cases at the International Criminal Court.
“Of course it comes with the risk that states use this to say that we have done something, rather than take forward what they must do under international law, and these, I have to reiterate, are very strong international legal obligations,” she added.
The announcements, Hammouri said, came after almost two years of these nations’ inability to stop the destruction in Gaza.
“When we look at this situation, we need to ask ourselves a very important question, which is: ‘Are they doing this with the genuine intention to do something about this or are they doing this just so that they will look better than the very very dark image that we are looking at today?’”
Most of the world already recognizes a Palestinian state. That has given it the opportunity to have its own Olympic teams, diplomatic missions abroad and to participate as an observer state at the United Nations.
When the Israeli military began its operation to take over Gaza City earlier this month, thousands of people were forced to move once again to the south. Many have been displaced multiple times.
The death toll in Gaza continues to rise on a daily basis, and reports of hunger and malnourishment continue.
Hammouri said that countries have to take concrete steps to end this carnage in Gaza, like imposing arms embargoes, economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation. Otherwise, the announcements won’t mean much to the people on the ground in Gaza.
In Israel, the response has been strong. Leaders there have described the recognition as a reward for Hamas.
“A Palestinian state will not be established,” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netahyahu said in Hebrew in a video. He added that, for years, he has prevented the establishment of this state despite enormous pressures both from within and from outside. And as part of that effort, he has doubled the number of settlements in the Occupied West Bank.
Officials from the US have also described the vote as “yet another misguided and ill-timed publicity stunt.”
But for Yotam Kipnis, this is a step in the right direction. His parents were killed during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. His father’s caregiver was also killed.
“This should give us hope and a vision for the future, and show us that two states living alongside [one another] is possible,” Kipnis said.
Nine of his family members were also taken hostage that day but have since been released.
“Personally, it was devastating,” he said, but added that instead of being vengeful, he’s been investing his energy in peacebuilding. He’s become part of a grassroots campaign that’s circulating a petition calling for the creation of a Palestinian state.
“Peace with the Palestinians is not only possible, but it is necessary, and nowhere could it be as clear as now how necessary it is,” he said.
Kipnis added that the Israeli government has shown that it is not interested in ending the war, or making peace with the Palestinians.
The Israeli public is divided on the issue, too, which Kipnis said is clear every time he goes to anti-war protests.
“When I go to these protests, I sometimes see people who aggressively attack and who shout at us and curse us, and I don’t even want to say what they are saying about our families who have been lost,” he said.
Experts say the current situation on the ground in Gaza, and the unwillingness of the far-right politicians in Israel to compromise, makes it hard to imagine the implementation of a two-state solution anytime soon.
But Kipnis said he continues to push forward.
So far, the petition has received about 9,000 signatures. The focus is not to change anyone’s mind, Kipnis explained, but to encourage those who believe in a two-state solution to be more vocal.
“Not only do we need to end the war, but we also need to prevent the next war.”