29 SEPTEMBER—The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly turned out to be as momentous as many had anticipated. On Sunday 21 September Australia, Canada, Portugal, and the United Kingdom recognized Palestinian statehood. The following day, six more countries including France and Belgium, joined with the vast majority of the world’s nations to affirm a Palestinian right to national sovereignty.
It’s difficult for me to read this as anything other than the desperate appeasement of increasingly angry and vocal citizens in countries across the West—and may increasing numbers of enraged citizens fill the streets. Almost certainly this spate of recognitions is prompted in part by the cynical self-preservation of ruling elites who may begin to understand what it means to be complicit in genocide.
Opinions abound. A variety of commentators have commentated. But what we rarely hear when matters of significance involve Palestine and the future of Palestinians is what Palestinians themselves think and want. This is of course by design.
With this in mind, I texted various of my West Bank friends and contacts to learn what each had to say. I asked each person the same two questions: “What do you think about the recent recognitions of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations this week? What are people saying?”
Several of the replies are exceedingly brief. In my read, this expresses an understandable skepticism and fatigue given the global failure to stop the genocide in Gaza and numerous historical betrayals over many years, not least by the U.N. itself. Other replies are contextualized within the brutal realities of life under military occupation and settler colonialism.
My respondents range in age from twenty-four to ninety-one. They live in large cities and small towns, refugee camps and remote villages. They are students, professionals, elected officials, community activists, and goatherds. These are voices from the West Bank of Occupied Palestine where the Zionist state has escalated, in brutality and scope, its project of ethnic cleansing.
What follows are the voices of the Palestinians I texted last week—voices and opinions almost never reported upon in the West. These are the voices we most need to hear. As a necessary precaution, I use first names only, several of them pseudonyms.
—C. M.
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Samia.
Recognition of Palestinian statehood is great but will be futile if the genocide on Gaza and occupation do not come to an end.
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Ahmad.
As long as nothing is changing on the ground, no one is gonna have any reaction to that. People need practical measures. Not only talks and recognition.
Overall they’re happy about it. But they want policies and actual change. There is a renewed sense of hope. Palestinians feel the possibility that something significant could happen and life might get better for them.
There’s a reason for hope because, after Spain recognized Palestine, Palestinian had the chance to get Schengen visas to visit Europe for 90 days. It was an opportunity for some people to travel and have a bit of fun if possible. [Schengen visas allow entry into the 29 European countries that form the Schengen Area.]
Another reason for hope is the support of those governments who recognize Palestine—the financial and political support. Things could become a bit better in the upcoming months because of the financial support of the recognizing governments. They promised the Palestinian Authority a package of financial aid.
[Money owed to the P.A.—some 10 billion shekels in tax revenue, equivalent to US$3 billion—is being illegally withheld by Israel as collective punishment for 7 October and as a way to destroy Palestinian civil society. The consequence to government institutions that provide education, health care, utilities, and other basic services has been devastating. Government employees have gone for months without pay. All of which has crippled an already fragile economy.]
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Rania.
These recognitions aren’t a big deal. Cutting military aid would be much better. This is what I think. It’s what everyone is saying.
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Marwa.
In general it’s good that we’re making progress in diplomacy. But they added three new checkpoints after the recognitions. The situation here is bad and unfortunately it’s getting worse. So technically nothing has changed on the ground.
Recognition wasn’t the main problem. It’s the ongoing genocide. The recent recognitions didn’t solve the problem.
I saw a social media post from a guy in Hebron, he was saying “please no one recognize us. Every time a country does that, those Zionist idiots add new checkpoints as a form of collective punishment.”
In general Palestinians get punished whenever we breathe.
Of course I’m not against recognizing but I feel like the way Westerners think is extremely stupid. It’s like seeing someone shot lying on the ground and instead of treating him and saving his life, you open up a debate about what you’re seeing: “What’s that on the ground? Is the blood real?”
And after decades you recognize that the body lying on the ground and bleeding is real.
I want to say that recognition of Palestinian statehood is better than nothing. But on the ground nothing changes after these recognitions.
Also the Palestine that they recognized is not the Palestine that we Palestinians are dying for. It’s only the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. The 48 Lands aren’t part of the country that they recognize.
It’s bullshit.
I think these countries have to take real actions. Stop funding Israel and arrest the soldiers who killed the kids in Gaza while they’re on vacation in Europe.
[“The ’48 Lands” refers to the territory that was stolen and ethnically cleansed by European Zionist terrorists during the Nakba. This land was subsequently recognized by the international community as the state of Israel.]
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Alia.
I generally think it’s not what we should be celebrating or talking about. It came decades late. The thing is they don’t even recognize Palestine as a whole, they only recognize what is left for us. Which means that their recognition is conditional. They don’t recognize the 27,027 square kilometers that was historic Palestine.
It’s not about if they recognize us or not. It’s about if there is even something left to recognize. It’s just a matter of technical terms other than that nothing really changes. To a homeless orphaned boy in Gaza this recognition means nothing! I would fully support it if it stopped the current madness that my people are suffering from a few kilometers away in Gaza.
If you think about it, this wave of recognitions is working as a distraction. The social media is flooded with the news of the recognitions, but it seems like it muted the most important thing, which is the situation in Gaza—the news that should be spreading wildly instead of this.
Even many of my people are celebrating on their social media accounts and not talking about the current situation and struggles in Gaza and the West Bank. They actually fell for it. They fell for the distraction.
Israel closed the border—the Allenby Bridge—as a form of collective punishment after the recognitions were announced. And they immediately constructed additional checkpoints.
[The Allenby Bridge is the principal land crossing between the West Bank and Jordan.]
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Adnan.
The people of Kisan are in a state of increasing fear and imminent danger, after settlers began advancing towards the village from the north-eastern side with sheep and armed men. They’ve reached an area not far from the houses, about 200 meters away. Fear and anxiety also increased after the settlers attacked Kisan a few weeks ago.
As for the United Nations and the recent recognition of the State of Palestine by various countries, the consequence for us is further punishment, an increase in violence and terrorism by the settlers and the I.O.F. against our people. Residents are now forced to cross more than 6 metal gates separating Kisan from Bethlehem. All of the villages are cut off from each other. In a minute, the army can separate the residents of villages, towns, neighborhoods, and districts from each other. All of this is a punitive measure against the Palestinians for the world’s recognition of our right to have a state.
[Kisan is a village of 400 people—over half of whom are children—located 15 kilometers south and east of Bethlehem. It’s completely surrounded by settlements and outposts and subject to routine attack by Jewish land thieves.]
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Raya.
Palestinians in general see the recognition of the Palestinian state by countries such as Britain and Canada as a good and important step, but not sufficient. There is a strong feeling that this recognition came far too late, after decades of denial and unconditional support for Israel, especially in light of the massacres and genocide that the Palestinian people are facing in Gaza.
Palestinians emphasize that this recognition is not a “gift” or a “reward” from these countries, but rather an inherent right of the Palestinian people to establish their sovereign state, with Jerusalem as its capital, and with all rights, including the right to self-determination.
At the same time, there is a deep awareness that Britain and Canada still play a role biased toward Israel, through military and political support, covering up the crimes of the occupation, and failing to translate recognition into practical actions such as stopping the genocide or holding the leaders of the occupation accountable. Therefore, Palestinians believe that this recognition is more of an attempt by these governments to absolve themselves in front of their own societies, to show that they are not partners in the genocide. Popular pressure in the West is what forced them to take such a step.
Additionally, Palestinians remind the world that these same countries are part of the colonial and imperialist system that has historically and continuously contributed to the oppression of peoples. For this reason, any step they take must be understood in this context, not as a truly principled stance.
In conclusion, recognition is considered a good and unexpected step, but it will have no real value unless it is followed by serious and practical measures: ending support for the occupation, holding its leaders accountable, and ensuring the Palestinians’ right to a free and sovereign state.
As long as the occupation, the armed settlers, and the armed soldiers remain on our land, then speaking about a Palestinian state without sovereignty or defense is meaningless. What does it mean to declare a state under occupation and stripped of arms? It simply means a state stripped of sovereignty, where settlers and soldiers can continue to shed Palestinian blood without accountability.
As long as the occupation exists in its military or settlement form, no one can prevent Palestinians from resisting it. Resistance is a legitimate right of the Palestinian people, and they will continue to defend themselves against occupation and colonization.
Therefore, in the presence of occupation, settlements, and armed settlers, real and sovereign statehood is impossible. Any talk of a Palestinian state under these conditions is nothing but an attempt to reproduce colonial control in a new form.
[Raya was standing on her land, surrounded by lemon and olive trees when she received and replied to my text. She sent me a short video (see below) as we exchanged messages. Access to the land is blocked by two barricades and she has to hike over the mountains to reach it. Olive harvest begins in two weeks. I wonder how she will manage to haul heavy bags of olives over the mountains.]
Published simultaneously on Winter Wheat.
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This is so awesome: to hear from Palestinians in Palestine in their own words. Thank you for doing this.
Palestinian voices such as these need to heard by the whole world, and not the voices of self-serving politicians who make insipid, meaningless statements about recognizing a non-existent state that they have no intention of seeing become a reality. At best, there might be a British Mandate of Palestine Redux with war criminal Tony Blair in charge! I can just imagine what your friends have to say about that!