How many UN member states recognise Palestine?published at 12:02 British Summer Time
12:02 BST
Matt Murphy
BBC Verify senior journalist
Image source, PA Media
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced yesterday that, unless certain conditions are met, the UK will join France in recognising the state of Palestine in September.
We wondered how many full UN member states now recognise Palestine and it turns out that it is harder to find the answer to that question than you might think.
We approached the UN’s press office in New York to find a definitive answer, but they told us that they don’t keep an official count. A spokesperson said that diplomatic relations with Palestine are a matter for the states involved.
So we then approached the Palestinian mission at the UN to see if it counted, it told us it didn’t have a running tally to hand, but pointed to some media reporting putting the figure at 147 states as of Friday.
Running out of options, our visual journalism team trawled through the records and came up with a figure of 148 full states – with France and the UK set to join in September.
End of the story right? Well, almost. That total includes the Czech Republic, which inherited recognition of Palestine from its predecessor, Czechoslovakia, in 1988. While Prague has never formally revoked that recognition, the government has said it does not recognise the Palestinian state. So, while it’s included in the tally, the true picture is a little more complicated.