User:Lihaas/International recognition of Palestine

Palestine's status is under dispute, though it declared independence November 15, 1988. 106 countries of the world recognise Palestinian sovereingty under the pre-1867 borders.

Background
The Palestinians have been working to persuade other countries to acknowledge their right to establish an independent state. Their target date is August 2011 - two years after the plan to establish a Palestinian state was first introduced by prime minister Salam Fayyad.

israel's reaction
State officials in Jerusalem expressed concern that other countries in Latin America and the world will follow in Brazil and Argentina's footsteps. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said: "This is a very disappointing step which contributes nothing to furthering the peace process." / He described the announcement as "a verbal gesture which goes against the Oslo Accords whereby a permanent solution can only be the result of negotiations." Palmor stressed that the gesture "encourages the Palestinians at the very time when they insist on avoiding negotiations." / Foreign Ministry officials have therefore started holding low-profiles talks with Latin American leaders, Ynet learned. "This is a meaningless paper, a virtual declaration. These declarations may look good in print but lack any understanding of the Middle Eastern reality," a ministry source said.

UN member states
Of the world's nine most populous states, eight (all except the United States) recognise the State of Palestine. Of the world's 20 most populous states, 15 (all except the United States, Japan, Mexico, Germany and Thailand) recognise the State of Palestine.

By contrast, the 72 UN member states which currently recognize the Republic of Kosovo as an independent state include only one of the nine most populous states (the United States) and only four of the 20 most populous states (the United States, Japan, Germany and Turkey).

Positions taken by intergovernmental organisations
Intergovernmental organisations do not themselves diplomatically recognise any state; their member states do so individually. However, depending on the intergovernmental organisation's rules of internal governance and the positions of their member states, they may express positive or negative opinions as to declarations of independence, or choose to offer or withhold membership to a newly-declared state.

Analysis
If the Arab League were now to call on the minority of UN member states which have not already recognised Palestine to do so promptly, it is certain that the response would be far superior (both in quantity and in quality) to the response to the recent American appeal on behalf of Kosovo.