The war in Gaza has caused massive civilian casualties and destruction, with images of suffering fuelling global outrage, particularly among young people.
While Western governments remain largely aligned with Israel, grassroots protests across Europe and U.S. campuses are creating a sharp divide in public opinion.
The wave of recognition from the UK, France, Australia, Canada and several other smaller nations like Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Monaco has handed Palestine a symbolic moral victory, but little more. On the ground, the recognition is worth nothing.
Without Washington’s blessing, the declarations are worth little more than the papers they are written on. Israel, particularly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is long accustomed to brushing aside world opinion. He is unlikely to flinch so long as the United States has his back.
A moral victory is of little help to the long suffering people of Gaza and the West Bank, that Israel is now hoping to annex.
Today more and more countries are recognising a Palestinian state. Of the 193 UN member states, 145 back an independent state of Palestine, reports AFP. Earlier most of these countries were from the Global South but now a growing number of Western governments are also willing to do so. The US, Israel’s closest ally, has refused
to endorse a Palestine state. America will now be the only Permanent Member of The United Nations Security Council(UNSC), to oppose a two-state solution. P5-members are the US, Russia, China, France and the UK.
Since Israel’s war on Gaza,sparked by the October 7 Hamas attack, the Gaza enclave has been more or less raised to the ground. Over 65000 people, mostly civilians including babies and women have been killed so far. Using starvation as a weapon of war, bombing hospitals and targeting UN aid workers, doctors and journalists, have all been part of the IDF tactics.
The raw images of violent deaths, of people walking to safe destinations and being bombed on the way, streaming out of Gaza, have disturbed most of the world, mainly the young. Protests across US campuses last summer has led to strict action against students and teachers in America’s top universities. The protests against Israel’s war hungry leader Netanyahu is being dubbed in America as anti sematic. Western governments in the past, had always earlier defended Israel’s right to self-defence.
Young Raise Their Voices Against Genocide
While governments are supportive of Israel’s actions the ordinary citizens are repulsed by what they witness on a daily basis. ``Western opinion on Israel’s action is now divided, thanks mainly to the efforts of young people in Europe. The young are appalled by the genocide in Gaza and want action from the governments,’’ says Talmiz Ahmad, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Recognition of a Palestinian state makes not a whit of difference but on the ground. Implementation of a two-state solution is far far away. Israel is in no mood for it. Instead it wants to annex 80 per cent of the West Bank and take over Gaza City. Israeli Tanks are moving towards the city even as we write this.
What does recognition of Palestine mean?
Very little. For one, President Mahmoud Abbas has been barred from attending the UN session in New York, by the Trump administration. Palestine is also not a full fledged member of the UN.
"Despite so many countries recognising Palestine, it is only an observer in the UN, not a member. Besides, recognition is for the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah led by Mahmoud Abbas, who has no control over Gaza under Hamas," says Dilip Sinha, retired diplomat, who has written a book on the UNSC and the UN system. He also points to the fact, that it is linked to the domestic politics of many of the European countries, where the young people, much like in the US are appalled that Israel is able to get away with nothing less than genocide in Gaza.
"This is being done by the UK and others to placate the Muslims in their own country to stop them from demonstrating and going on the rampage in their cities. No one is prepared to take action against Israel, not the West nor the Arabs or other Islamic countries," says Sinha.
Two-State Solution
The two state solution has been on the table since the carving out of Israel from Palestinian land in 1948. But it has been observed more in the breach.
The two-state solution is a proposed approach to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by creating two sovereign states: Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, and Palestine—comprising the West Bank and Gaza Strip—as the homeland of the Palestinian people.
The two-state solution, a Palestinian and Israeli state living side by side in peace, was resurrected during and after the Oslo Accord, but nothing was ever done to implement it on the ground. In 1988, India became one of the first non-Arab countries to recognize the Palestinian State.
The US and most of Western governments had earlier viewed IDF action through the prism of Israeli security and the need to take action against those who threatened the Jewish state. But the scale of destruction by the Israelis, using starvation as a weapon of war, have turned a number of countries against Israel. In fact by recognising a Palestine state, France, UK, Australia and Canada, are breaking away from the US, on this one point.
"We must pave the way for peace," French President Emmanuel Macron said at the start of the session at the United Nations in New York, according to Reuters. "We must do everything within our power to preserve the very possibility of a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security," he repeated the mantra, long regarded as the only solution to the Palestine-Israel issue. But for now both all this remains a pipedream.
