140 CHAPTER FivE ■ The STaTeseekIng PalestInIan statehood
Behind The headlines
Palestine has been contested territory for more
than 2,000 years. Since the establishment of
israel in 1948, there have been numerous propos-
als for creating two states in the region— israel for
the Jews and Palestine for the Arabic Muslim
peoples. But after six wars and numerous rounds
of negotiations, no solution for dividing the terri-
tory that is compatible with the national interests
of each entity has been found. So why did a recent
headline declare, “Palestinian Leaders See vali -
dation of Their Statehood Effort”a?
in recent years, Palestinian leaders have
started an enhanced unilateral diplomatic offen-
sive to achieve state status by a diff er ent route.
Most states in Asia, Latin Amer i ca, and Africa
already recognize Palestine as a state, supporting
the Palestinian people against what many per-
ceive as domination by the Western- supported
hegemony of the United States. in 2012, Palestine
became a “nonmember observer state”— a recog-
nition of de facto sovereign statehood, followed
in 2015 by its admission to the international Crimi-
nal Court.
That strategy has begun in earnest. in 2015,
Pope Francis praised Mahmoud Abbas, the
president of the Palestinian Authority, as an
“angel of peace.” Then in June of the same year,
the vatican signed a treaty with the “state of
Palestine,” an endorsement of Palestine’s bid
for sovereignty and statehood and the vati-
can’s hope that relations between israel and
Palestine would improve.
Also in 2015, Palestinian authorities lobbied
FiFA (Fédération internationale de Foot ball
Association), the governing body of world soccer,
to suspend israel from that organ ization— a strat-
egy that had previously been used to isolate
South Africa during the apartheid era. While that
proposal was subsequently rescinded, it set off
another round of shut tle diplomacy, much as
American diplomats have engaged in for de cades
to try to reach a peace agreement.
The legal criteria for statehood is well estab-
lished: a defined territory, a government to which
people are obedient, a people living in a confined
space, and recognition by other states and inter-
national bodies. For the vast majority of new
“states” seeking legal statehood, joining the
United Nations is the legitimation of statehood.
it was no prob lem for South Sudan to gain that
status in 2011, at the end of the 20- year civil war in
that country. But the Palestinian case is diff er ent.
The United States, one of the permanent mem-
bers of the UN Security Council with veto power,
will not support Palestinian statehood since israel
strongly opposes the policy and the pro cess.
Thus, this impasse has led Palestine to seek state-
hood using a diff er ent strategy. What cannot be
accomplished de jure (according to the law) may
be achieved de facto (in fact).
Realists view the impasse as an example of
each side acting on behalf of its national interest.
israel needs assurances that its security is firm
and that its citizens will no longer be threatened
by attacks from Palestinian territories. The United
States supports its ally. Palestinians demand a ter-
ritory and a space of their own, where their
people may live peacefully as they have for millen-
nia. While liberals may have placed faith in nego-
tiations to solve the prob lem of two peoples on
one land, de cades of disappointments have led
some to support this other approach. As con-
structivists would argue, the more Palestinian
claims to statehood are legitimized by members
of the international community, the more Pales-
tine can act as a de jure state.