Palestinian statehood is set to take center stage at the United Nations General Assembly this week, as a flurry of Western nations announced their official recognition ahead of the meeting despite fierce opposition from Israel and the United States.
The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Portugal departed from decades of policy on Sunday by recognizing the State of Palestine outside of negotiations with Israel.
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Another group of countries will follow suit on Monday at a landmark conference on Palestinian statehood co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France, where the latter will join Belgium, Malta, San Marino, Andorra and Luxembourg in recognizing Palestine.
Read more: Which countries have recognized a Palestinian state?
The question of Palestinian statehood, which has been a focus of General Assembly meetings since soon after its founding, is expected to feature heavily in the speeches from world leaders as part of the General Debate that starts on Tuesday.
The recognitions come in response to Israel’s continued assault on Gaza and increased illegal settlement building in the West Bank, actions that Israel’s allies and foes alike say destroy the chances of a future Palestinian state.
Today, around 150 out of 193 U.N. member states recognize Palestinian statehood, including most of the Global South.
But the push will face fierce opposition from President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both of whom will likely speak out against the move at the General Assembly this week.
President Trump was asked during his unprecedented second state visit to the U.K. last week about his thoughts regarding the country’s plan to recognise Palestine.
“Simply, I want the hostages released now, right now, not one, two…We have to remember October 7, one of the worst, most violent days in the history of the world,” said Trump in response to a question on why he disagreed with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s plan.
“I have a disagreement with the Prime Minister on that score, one of our few disagreements,” said the President in a press conference alongside Starmer on Thursday.
The U.S. has long argued that a Palestinian state should only be born from negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. That was also the position of most Western nations until this week. But negotiations have not been held since 2014, and Netanyahu has said repeatedly that he will not allow a Palestinian state.
“It will not happen,” he said on Sunday. “A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River.”
Starmer waited until Trump had left the UK to make his announcement, explaining that the decision was “to keep alive the possibility of peace and a two-state solution.”
“With the actions of Hamas, the Israeli government escalating the conflict, and settlement building being accelerated in the West Bank, the hope of a two-state solution is fading. But we cannot let that light go out,” Starmer said in a video statement on Sunday.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called his country’s upcoming recognition “a symbolic, immediate, political decision that demonstrates France’s commitment to the two-state solution,” speaking to TV1.
Israel condemned the decisions by the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Portugal to recognize Palestine, with Netanyahu saying the move amounted to a “prize” for Hamas.
Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon called recognitions of Palestinian statehood “empty declarations that ignore the reality,” on Sunday. “The defeat of Hamas and the end of the war will not be achieved by performative speeches at the UN, but by the sustained pressure and activities on the ground by the State of Israel,” said Danon.
Despite calling Israel’s ongoing ground offensive in Gaza “completely the wrong approach,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says that a recognition of Palestine would not come at the upcoming General Assembly.
“A negotiated two-state solution is the path that can enable both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace, security, and dignity. For Germany, the recognition of a Palestinian state is more likely to be at the end of the process,” said Wadephul on Monday.
The international community has long called for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, largely in line with the borders that existed before the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, as set out in U.N. Security Council Resolution 242.
But the prospect of a two-state solution has dimmed after decades of illegal Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank has encroached on land that would have constituted a Palestinian state. Most states and international legal bodies, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ) consider West Bank settlements illegal. In Gaza now, too, some 90% of the population has been displaced, and much of the territory has been made unlivable by widespread Israeli bombing.
The Hamas terror attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed nearly 1,200 people, has only hardened Israeli positions towards the two-state solution.
The flurry of recognition comes amid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza as Israel’s operations continue in Gaza City, the territory’s most populated area.
More than 400,000 Palestinians have fled the city as Israeli strikes continue, whilst thousands have remained due to fears of displacement once again, despite food shortages and lack of access to shelter.
The U.N. has reported the destruction of whole neighborhoods during Israel’s ongoing operations in Gaza City from controlled detonations, as well as 28,000 confirmed cases of malnutrition amongst children under five years old across July and August.
Famine was recently declared in the Gaza governorate in the territory, with the areas of Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis expected to follow similar confirmation by the end of September.
An independent U.N. commission concluded last week that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza, with Netanyahu inciting genocide, alongside former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and President Isaac Herzog.
The International Association of Genocide Scholars also reached the same conclusion, passing a resolution on August 31 alleging that Israeli “policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide,” per the U.N. 1948 Convention on genocide.
Israel has staunchly denied such allegations, with the Foreign Ministry calling the U.N. Commission report “distorted and false.”
Israel warned on West Bank annexation after Palestinian statehood recognition
Prior to Monday’s meeting at the U.N., U.K Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has warned Israel not to further annex parts of the West Bank in response to Britain’s recognition of Palestine.
“We have been clear to the Israeli government that they must not do that and we have been clear that this decision that we are taking is about the best way to respect the security for Israel as well as the security for Palestinians,” said Cooper when asked by the BBC about Israel using her government’s announcement as a pretext for annexation.
Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said “the only response to the anti-Israeli move is sovereignty over the homeland of the Jewish people in Judea and Samaria,” referring to the Biblical names for the area now called the West Bank. He added that the idea of a Palestinian state was “foolish” on Sunday.
In August, Smotrich also announced a new Israeli settlement expansion plan, including 3,000 new housing units across the West Bank.
Over 737,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as of March 2025, and settlement expansion has seen rapid increases in recent years under the current Israeli government.
More than 30,000 new housing units have also been approved across both territories since November 2023.
Another far-right member of Israel’s cabinet, Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has called for “the immediate application of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and the complete crushing of the ‘Palestinian’ terror authority.”
Both Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have long called for the complete annexation of the West Bank, which is administered by the Palestinian Authority in part and Israel in other areas.
The two ministers were sanctioned by a number of countries earlier this year, including the U.K., Canada and Australia, for “inciting extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights.”