Since the occurrence of the war in October 2023, which shocked the conscience of the world, bringing the Palestinian question back to the forefront of international attention, much more legitimacy has accrued to the rights of the Palestinians.

Governments, states and political institutions found themselves on the horns of a dilemma of either recognising the State of Palestine or reaffirming that a State of Palestine had to be established, given the unprecedented wave of public outrage against continuing crimes perpetrated by Israel. Yet, if one accepts these recognitions at face value, one would disregard the stark and grim reality of Palestinians’ daily lives: in Gaza, for instance, genocide unfolds before the eyes of the world, registered on the medium of sound and image.

Such recognition for the state of Palestine, while doing absolutely nothing to stop the genocide or halt the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem, remains mere recognition on paper, with no real meaning or impact on people’s lives. Rather, without any concrete action, such recognition is, in fact, a moral fig leaf, which states employ to wash away Palestinian blood from their hands while continuing, with impunity, to support the occupation, whether politically, militarily or economically.

The central thesis is clear: the authentic recognition of the Palestinian state must begin with the protection of the Palestinian people themselves – stopping them from being killed, starved, and forcibly displaced from their homeland. Recognition in international forums remains meaningless if its people are being exterminated before the eyes of the world.

International legitimacy: Between text and reality

For over more than 70 years, dozens of international resolutions have affirmed the rights of the Palestinian people, starting with Resolution 181 partitioning Palestine and Resolution 194 concerning the right of return and many subsequent resolutions inhaling the illegality of occupation and settlement. Yet, these resolutions have remained shelved, with powerful international actors, chief among them the US, shielding Israel from any genuine kind of accountability.

What followed in October 2023, however, marked a turning point. The carefully cultivated image Israel had projected for decades, of a “democratic state defending itself”, was shattered. The footage emerging from Gaza, mass killings, deliberate starvation, indiscriminate bombings and the targeting of hospitals and schools shifted global public opinion firmly toward justice for Palestinians and exposed the crimes of the Israeli occupation. This is what drove some countries to recognise the Palestinian state or to renew their recognition with greater force, in an attempt to align with the conscience of their peoples.

However, even when there is some sort of recognition, it is useless to change the fact of occupation without real pressure supporting that recognition. Israel is still rapidly expanding its settlements in the West Bank, enacting forced displacement in Jerusalem and perpetrating mass murder of civilians in Gaza. What value does recognition have when entire villages are obliterated and families systematically uprooted? International legitimacy becomes meaningless without action that would end the killing and halt the aggressor.

Genocide in Gaza as the core of preventing statehood

What is happening in Gaza today is not simply a war, nor a temporary military reaction. It is a process of genocide aimed at uprooting Palestinian society from its land and stripping it of the means to live. Siege, starvation, blocked aid, the destruction of infrastructure and the mass killing of civilians are not tools of “deterrence” but instruments of eradication.

For 77 years, Israeli policies have aimed to stop Palestinians from settling on their own land. The 1948 Nakba, the 1967 Naksa, continual invasions, expanding settlements, the apartheid wall and many other incidents reflect a long-term project that aims to eliminate any prospect of a sovereign Palestinian state.

Today, Gaza represents the most iconic of these examples: a strip of land under siege for more than 20 years, turned by Israel into an open-air prison, under a plan in 2023 to “vacate the prison” along with its inmates through expulsion, murder or starvation. How can the world speak of a “Palestinian state” while more than two million people, its supposed citizens, are being exterminated?

Recognition of statehood amid such atrocities is akin to placing a sign reading “Here Lies a State” atop a mass grave. There is no state without a people, and no recognition without protection.

The true meaning of recognition

What value lies in parliamentary votes or official statements recognising the Palestinian state if Palestinians are being slaughtered at the same moment? What meaning does recognition have if it is not followed by an arms embargo to stop the killing of civilians?

True recognition begins with protecting lives. A state is not lines drawn on a map or a flag hoisted at the United Nations. It is a living entity, built on a free people capable of surviving and enduring. If that people is under existential assault, then any recognition is hollow.

The first and most practical value of recognition, therefore, is stopping the genocide. Without this, recognition will remain a political announcement with no impact on Palestinians’ daily lives. Worse still, recognition can become a tool to ease the Western conscience while leaving intact the essence of support for Israel. This is the gravest danger: recognition reduced to a fig leaf covering complicity and paralysis.

The right to self-determination cannot be delegated

A major problem with many recognitions of Palestinian statehood is the attempt by some states or powers to attach preconditions: the shape of the state, its borders, its leadership, even its political system.

What value does acknowledging the right to self-determination have if that right is being exercised indirectly or through proxies? The Palestinians, themselves, in all their social and political diversity, are the legitimate decision-makers of their state and their future. A state imposed from outside, with borders and policies delineated to appease powerful third parties, is not substantive.

A real Palestinian state is one that includes all elements of the Palestinian social fabric, domestically or in the diaspora, without exclusion. A state “designed” in foreign capitals is a hollow entity that neither represents the people’s will nor possesses the conditions for survival.

The gravest danger is that recognition could become a means to reproduce another “Oslo”, a pseudo-authority presiding over fragmented enclaves, while the occupation retains ultimate control over every detail of life. That is not recognition but political deception.

The responsibility of the international community

Recognition of the Palestinian state was never a gift; it is an achievement wrested through immense sacrifice, through steadfastness on the land despite massacres and displacement. Yet, today the world faces an unprecedented moral test: will recognition be translated into action to halt ongoing crimes, or remain an empty slogan for media consumption?

If the bombings do not stop, if the sieges are not lifted, if sanctions are not imposed on Israel, then the international community becomes a direct accomplice in the crime. Recognition without protection is participation in killing. One could even argue that recognition becomes a way to launder genocide, creating the illusion of action while tacitly enabling the violence through silence or indirect support.

The obligation here is not solely political; it is human and ethical. History will not forgive those states that were happy to use words as priorities, while the blood of children was being spilled in Gaza and the West Bank. If the world learned anything from the genocides in Rwanda, or Bosnia, it has to do with silence and indifference being equally forms of complicity.

Conclusion

Recognition of the Palestinian state, no matter how widespread or frequent, amounts to nothing unless tied to the immediate cessation of the genocide being carried out in Gaza and the West Bank. There is no state without a people, and no recognition that ignores a people being slaughtered daily before the world’s eyes.

For 77 years, Palestinians have not abandoned their land despite repeated attempts to uproot them. Instead, they have deepened their presence and sacrificed their dearest for its sake. But today they face an existential moment: either the world intervenes seriously to stop the bloodshed, or recognition of their state will remain a moral illusion soothing Western consciences without changing reality.

Real recognition is not manifested in words or declarations. It is political and legal, it is moral action, viz., it is action for the protection of lives, for ending settlement expansion and for ensuring the full right of self-determination. The world is at a crossroads: will recognition open up a path to end the occupation and genocide, or will it remain a task and commitment on paper that cannot stop a bullet or save a life? Either way, one truth is beyond dispute: no state can exist without a people living, and no form of recognition is meaningful without justice, nor can there be peace without freedom.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.