In the midst of a flurry of recent global headlines that explain a total famine in the Gaza Strip, the leaders of France, Great Britain and Canada, as well as some other countries, declared their intentions to formally recognize a Palestinian state as a way to end the almost two-year war.
Nevertheless, the announcements – a direct response to global headlines and shocking photos of alleged starving – children – can be hollow statements after the Israeli government said on Friday that it would expand the military operation in Gaza as the only way to defeat Hamas, the designated Palestinian War, 7 October 2023.
Recognition of a Palestinian state could come through a growing number of states as soon as the United Nations General Meeting of next month. But with Hamas still present in Gaza and still owns at least 50 hostages, and with the other Palestinian leadership, the Palestinian authority of the West Bank, Weak and Corrupt, will undermine the efforts to achieve a short and long-term conflict?
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French President Emmanuel Macron, Right and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently declared their intentions to recognize a Palestinian state. The two are seen here during a meeting about the situation in Ukraine and safety issues in Europe in Elysée Palace 17 February 2025, in Paris. (Tom Nicholson/Getty images)
Ben Shabbat, who led the National Security Council from 2017 to 2021, said that from the perspective of French President Emmanuel Macron, “The initiative itself is what is important, not the content or opportunities for success.”
“It is doubtful whether he has considered the consequences that this could have, even in the Palestinian camp itself,” Ben Shabbat said.
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Palestinian Hamas terrorists are a guard in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip 22 February 2025, on the day of a transfer of hostages in Gaza after the fatal attack on October 7, 2023, attack. (Reuters/Hatem Khaled/File photo)
Last week Ghazi Hamad, a higher official of the political Hamas in Qatar, told Qatari news network Al Jazeera that the international recognition of a Palestinian state was “one of the fruits of the attack of 7 October”.
“Why do all these countries recognize Palestine now?” he said, according to a translation from Arabic Non-profit organization Memri. “The general outcome of October 7 forced the world to open its eyes to the Palestinian cause and to act strongly in this respect (they now acknowledge) that the Palestinian people deserve freedom and their own state.”
Israeli leaders have warned that recognizing a Palestinian state would be a clear reward for terrorism at the moment, and it will certainly do little to strengthen the position – or popularity – of Palestinian authority, Mahmoud Abbas, accused of corruption and he has refused to keep democratic for 20 years.
International recognition of a Palestinian state is also unlikely that the reality on the ground on the ground in Gaza or the West Bank will change, both of which have changed physically and demographically since the first plans for a two -way solution have been drawn up as part of the Oslo Accords about 32 years ago.
“In practice, the effects of unilateral recognition are quite limited,” Ben Shabbat said. “The recognition does not go into boundaries, and in fact the majority of the world has already recognized a Palestinian state when it was accepted as a UN observer state (in 2012).”
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Hamas terrorists killed civilians, including women, children and the elderly, when they attacked Israel on October 7. (Israel Defense Forces via AP)
“The most important impact of these statements is psychological – the momentum they can generate and the foundation they lay for possible future practical decisions,” he said.
Gayil Talshir, a political scientist and expert in the field of Israeli trends and the public opinion of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said that the steps to recognize a Palestinian state were “just empty explanations” that could actually deteriorate “who could deteriorate the situation”.
“It is a reaction to images instead of thinking about diplomacy and the process of how to make a real change,” she said.
The “New York Statement”, on the other hand, published last week by the Arab League, which called Hamas to release all hostages, to disarm and put an end to the rule of Gaza, a more promising road to peace, she said.
Palestinians march during the funeral of Palestinian terrorists killed the previous day in the Israeli military operation in Jenin in the occupied West Bank 5 July 2023. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty images)
“What is the political imagination behind the French declaration of support from Palestine if it does not state that Hamas should not be part of such a state or that the Palestinian authority, which is completely corrupt, is not part of it,” Talshir said.
“A statement can feel very just for France and Canada and the rest of these states, but it actually makes the situation more difficult and is perhaps even an option that could arise in the future,” she added. “Instead of building a process in which you have international supervision of Gaza and perhaps also about the occupied Palestinian territories and gradually building Palestinian possibilities of self -government, they are simply at Hamas against Israel.”
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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a leadership meeting in Ramallah in the West Bank on April 23, 2025. (Reuters/Mohammed Torokman)
Among some Palestinians, the idea of the state also feels, although welcomed, far out of reach.
“In practical terms, I cannot see that this will happen soon. It must be done by long -term negotiations,” said Huda Abu Arqoub, a Palestinian peace -building activist, referring to the idea of a Palestinian state that comes to life.
“For Palestinians who look at what happens in Gaza, something has died in us. And with that kind of despair, we just don’t have the luxury to come up with the day or a two -state solution.
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“As soon as this war is out of the picture, we may be able to breathe, perhaps we can regroup ourselves, perhaps we are open to other solutions instead of just the Oslo-based solution,” said Abu Arqoub, who acted as an advisor about peace at the European Union and some Arab states, including Saudi Arabia.
Instead of an international community ‘only parties,’ she added, “there must be a transition period for Palestinians to regain a kind of confidence in the system, to regain a two -state solution and to give us a choice or we want to be part of a political entity that runs for elections or not.”
