UN gathering to revive Palestinian statehood push amid Israel's brutal Gaza war
Days before the July 28-30 conference on fostering Israeli and Palestinian states living peacefully side-by-side to be co-chaired by Riyadh and Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would formally recognize the State of Palestine in September.
His declaration "will breathe new life into a conference that seemed destined to irrelevance," said Richard Gowan, an analyst at International Crisis Group. "Macron's announcement changes the game. Other participants will be scrabbling to decide if they should also declare an intent to recognize Palestine."
According to an AFP database, at least 142 of the 193 UN member states -- including France -- now recognize the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestinian leadership in exile in 1988.
In 1947, a resolution of the UN General Assembly decided on the partition of Palestine, then under a British mandate, into two independent states -- one Jewish and the other Arab.
The following year, the State of Israel was proclaimed, and for several decades, the vast majority of UN member states have supported the idea of a two-state solution: Israeli and Palestinian, living side-by-side peacefully and securely.
But after more than 21 months of war in Gaza, the ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and senior Israeli officials declaring designs to annex occupied territory, it is feared a Palestinian state could be geographically impossible.
The war in Gaza started following a deadly attack by Hamas on Israel, which responded with a large-scale military response that has claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives.
The New York conference is a response to the crisis, with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and several dozen ministers from around the world expected to attend.
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