The plan by three European countries to formally recognize a Palestinian state may not have any significant impact on the ground, but it has political and symbolic weight.
Spain, Norway and Ireland pledged on Wednesday to join more than 140 other nations that have recognized Palestinian statehood.
However, this recognition is unilateral and does not mean that a Palestinian State will be recognized by the United Nations, where the State of Palestine only has observer status.
“For individual Palestinians present in the Occupied Territories, this will mean absolutely nothing in the short term, perhaps in the medium term,” HA Hellyer, an academic at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in London, told CNN .
“It is obviously a political recognition on the part of States that do not have a presence on the ground”, he added.
The planned recognition, however, increases pressure on Israel as it wages a contentious war in Gaza.
Most of the international community considers the enclave, the West Bank and East Jerusalem to be occupied Palestinian territories.
If more nations join, Israel could become even more isolated on the world stage, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to reject the prospect of an independent Palestinian state as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hellyer said the Jewish state risks becoming an “international pariah” given that Western nations are now beginning to recognize a Palestinian state.
Although many countries recognize Palestinian statehood, few Western nations do so – with the exception of some European Union states that granted recognition when they were part of the Soviet Union.
“Western support for Israel is the foundation of Israel’s security architecture,” Hellyer said. “It’s deeply, deeply connected.”
The majority of the 193 members of the UN General Assembly have already voted in favor of granting the State of Palestine full membership of the UN.
However, Israel's ally the US blocked Palestine's bid for membership during a Security Council vote in April.
Source: CNN Brasil
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