So, I've looked into the Israel-Palestine issue and how many countries recognise each.
In this case, Wikipedia was the closest to a good source that I could find, so please do not crucify me for using it!
Anyhow, there are 193 sovereign states in the world today, with UN recognition and 10 others without UN backing. Israel is one of the 193, while the "Palestinian Occupied Territories" are one of the 10 non-recognised.
Apparently, Israel has ties with 163 countries, and 36 countries without any sort of ties, as this map shows. You can also see the map on Wikipedia.
From the countries that do not recognise Israel it is very obvious that almost all of them are Muslim, with a few notable exceptions - North Korea and Cuba, both Communist, and Venezuela and Bolivia which are leaning towards Socialism. I found that fact to be rather interesting...
Anyhow, Palestine on the other hand has not been internationally recognised by the UN (probably because of the possibility of a veto by the US), despite having PR China and the Russian Federation supporting Palestine. A total of 97 states recognise Palestine, so that represents 48% of the sovereign states of the world (or 47,8% of all the states - recognised and not recognised).
Now my question is more about the way we decide what is a state and what isn't. Should the UN Security Council be responsible for these things, or should we have a majority vote decide. Either way, Palestine does not get independence, but that might change. I am sure some countries would change their points of view if the rule of "51% needed for declaration of sovereignty" was implemented, and they would recognise Palestine as well.
But in this case there is one problem - what do they recognise? What did those 97 countries recognise - Palestine as meaning the West Bank and Gaza, or Palestine as in the entire Mandate Palestine? Most of the countries that have recognised Palestine recognise Israel as well. How does that work?
If you look as to who recognised Palestine, it is interesting to notice that there is a division in Europe - the East recognises Palestine, while the West still does not. Almost all the countries of Africa and Asia recognise Palestine, while in the Americas it is only 3 countries with official recognition.
What are your thoughts on this? I think it is very interesting and that it is a very important issue that needs to be addressed.
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The issue of recognition is always touchy, because when Palestine talks about not being recognized it does not mean internationally, it just means by the United States. Such is the power of the United Nations. Still, sometimes I wonder if China and Russia's staunch backing of Palestine is more about getting under the U.S.'s skin, and less about showing solidarity and support. As far as what kind of Palestine each country is supporting, each state would define Palestine in its own terms. The Muslim states most likely define Palestine as the entirety of Israel, but some of the more moderate states, those that recognize both Israel and Palestine, probably define Palestine along the lines of the current Palestinian authority. It's complicated, and recognizing Palestine means recognizing borders and borders always become a sticky topic.
ReplyDeleteWell, I was wondering, for example, if the U.S. would impose their power on Israel (as they do on the UN) and recognise Palestine as independent with the borders of 1948-67, meaning Gaza and the West Bank. The U.S. could definitely force Israel out of the occupation, thought diplomatic measures, for they would not want to lose their only ally. Well, not maybe only, but definitely the strongest and most important one.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if that would work, or make the situation even worse, but that might be a possibility?!
I've actually thought about that a lot too. In the past when the U.S. has demanded that Israel stop an occupation of a particular area by threatening to withdraw funding, it worked (I can't remember what exactly this instance was, but Jimmy Carter talks about it in his book Palestine: Peace not Aparteid and uses it as an example of the US power in the situation). I do think that if the US threatened to withdraw funding if Israel didn't withdraw to the 1967 borders we would see some real change, if not a complete withdrawl.
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