Ten more countries are recognizing Palestine as a sovereign state in the course of this week. That merely brings the total up from 147 to 157, but it’s a big deal nevertheless because for the first time it includes quite a few big, rich Western countries (France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia). But it is not unified and it still controls no territory.
The cascade of recognitions at the United Nations General Assembly’s annual session in New York is pure gesture politics. What drives it is belated sympathy for the Palestinians as they face a disaster even worse than the naqba (catastrophe) that drove most Palestinians out of what is now legally the State of Israel in 1948.
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