08/11/2025August 11, 2025
What is the history of the UN members recognising a Palestinian state?
On November 15, 1988, during the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule — commonly known by the Arabic word ‘intifada’ — the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat proclaimed the establishment of an , naming Jerusalem as its capital.
He made the declaration in Algiers before the exiled Palestinian National Council, which formally adopted the two-state solution as its political goal — envisioning and Palestinian states existing side by side.
Algeria recognised the state within minutes, becoming the first nation to do so. Within a week, dozens more followed — much of the Arab world, India, Turkey, most of Africa and several Central and Eastern European countries.
Recognition surged again in late 2010 and early 2011, as the Middle East peace process faltered. Several South American nations — including Argentina, Brazil and Chile — endorsed Palestinian statehood after Israel lifted a temporary freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
In 2011, with peace talks stalled, the Palestinians applied for full UN membership. That bid failed, but on October 31 the UN agency UNESCO admitted Palestine as a full member, prompting strong objections from Israel and the United States.
In November 2012, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to grant Palestine “non-member observer state” status, allowing the Palestinian flag to fly at the UN headquarters in New York for the first time. Three years later, the International Criminal Court accepted Palestine as a state party.
The Gaza war that followed the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack reignited momentum for Palestinian statehood. In 2024, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Bahamas and Armenia announced recognition.
They were joined by — Norway, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia — marking the first new EU recognitions since Sweden’s 2014 move, which had strained its ties with Israel.
Several EU members, including Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania, had recognised Palestine back in 1988, before joining the bloc. Others, such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, also did so at the time but no longer recognise it today.
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