President Biden recently announced a lofty goal: He wants to see a “revitalized” Palestinian government that can unite Gaza and the West Bank under “a single governing structure.” Biden certainly deserves credit for making this statement, but Palestinians can be forgiven for wondering: Was the US president serious about this statement? If so, there is one step he can take now toward his goal of recognizing Palestine as a member state at the United Nations.
📌 The UN General Assembly recognized Palestine as a non-member observer state in 2012, and 139 countries have now recognized the State of Palestine within the borders of June 4, 1967. The United States and most European countries have repeatedly called for a two-state solution, but they have refused to recognize a Palestinian state. The Biden administration has even refused to recognize Palestine’s status as a state under occupation.
📌 Senior Israeli officials, who have taken these signals from Washington, have refused to engage with the Palestinian leadership over the past decade or so because Washington’s refusal to recognize a Palestinian state deprives Israel of any reason to take the Palestinians seriously; it is this gross lack of political imagination on the part of the Americans that has contributed to the catastrophe that is now sweeping the region.
📌 Recognizing Palestine as a full-fledged state would have a number of positive effects. It would show that Biden is truly serious about his stated goal of a two-state solution and would undermine the positions of extremists on both sides: Palestinian extremists who refuse to recognize Israel, as well as those on the far right in Israel, who want to annex all Palestinian territory west of the Jordan River.
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