By Qamar Bashir
If by September 2025, as promised by a growing coalition of European Union states, over 100 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) nations, and key United Nations members, the State of Palestine is formally recognized, it will transform not just the diplomatic landscape but the lives of millions in Gaza and the West Bank. For seventy-seven years, Palestinians have lived stateless, denied protection under international law, treated not as a people but as a problem. This collective recognition would change that overnight, ending decades of unchecked Israeli impunity, shifting the balance of law, morality, and diplomacy, and offering Palestinians their first tangible hope of freedom, justice, and survival.
Global recognition would isolate Israel diplomatically like never before, branding it as the lone rejecter of peace among nearly all UN member states, with only the United States and a handful of allies shielding it from sanctions and prosecution. It would give Palestine stronger legal standing before the International Criminal Court and other UN agencies, enabling war crimes investigations into Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank and making arms sales and military aid to Israel politically toxic and legally indefensible.
Europe could impose sanctions on settlement goods, halt arms trade, and channel reconstruction funds directly to Palestine under state-to-state frameworks, bypassing Israel’s control over humanitarian aid and dismantling its stranglehold on Gaza’s survival.
Most importantly, recognition would allow Palestine to demand humanitarian corridors, international peacekeeping forces, and binding UN resolutions for reconstruction and protection, breaking the decades-long cycle of siege, starvation, and slaughter that turned Gaza and the West Bank into open-air prisons.
This historic shift is not theoretical; it is being built statement by statement, leader by leader, as the world finally breaks decades of silence that allowed Israeli crimes to go unchallenged. On January 20, 2025, at the 19th NAM Summit in Kampala, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered one of his most forceful rebukes of Israeli policy to date, declaring, “The refusal to accept the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable. The right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognized by all.” With over 120 NAM nations present, the call drew unanimous applause, a collective moral judgment against Israel’s policies of siege and occupation.
This wave of recognition gained early momentum on May 28, 2024, when Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez formally recognized Palestine, calling it “a historic move towards justice and the only route to achieve peace.” Spain joined Ireland, Norway, and 144 other nations that had already acknowledged Palestinian sovereignty, long before the latest atrocities in Gaza forced the world’s attention.
On July 25, 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron stunned Washington and Tel Aviv by announcing that France would recognize Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September, stating, “We cannot resign ourselves to endless war. Recognizing Palestine is not a reward for violence but a step toward peace, justice, and shared humanity.” France, a permanent UN Security Council member, shattered the decades-old Western condition that Palestinian statehood required Israeli approval—a condition perpetually sabotaged by occupation and annexation.
Just days later, on July 29, 2025, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer convened an emergency Cabinet meeting and declared, “We will recognize a Palestinian state before the UN General Assembly unless Israel takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agrees to a ceasefire, halts annexation in the West Bank, and commits to a two-state solution.” The UK, once one of Israel’s staunchest allies, is now preparing to break from Washington’s unconditional support, a dramatic shift driven by growing domestic and international outrage.
At a high-level UN conference on July 22, 2025, co-chaired by France and the UAE, France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Elro Baro described Gaza as “a charnel house where corpses look famished and spirits are desperate. The time for half-measures is over. France will fully recognize Palestine by September.” The conference saw Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations back this roadmap, while the Palestinian Authority pledged democratic reforms, elections in 2026, an end to militant funding, and Hamas’ exclusion from Gaza’s future governance—removing long-standing excuses Israel has used to block statehood.
Even long-standing defenders of Israel are faltering. During his July 2025 visit to Scotland, U.S. President Donald Trump, once Netanyahu’s most loyal ally, admitted publicly, “There is starvation in Gaza, and we have to get more involved in distributing aid.” Though still reluctant to confront Israel directly, his acknowledgment signals cracks in Washington’s unwavering shield, driven by global outrage and domestic anger over American complicity in supplying bombs used on civilians.
Meanwhile, Israel’s leadership clings to narratives that no longer withstand scrutiny, claiming Hamas hoards aid while Israeli bombs have destroyed Gaza’s infrastructure and decimated its leadership. Officials suggest Palestinians can “leave Gaza” for other nations, reducing an indigenous people to permanent refugees, while annexing West Bank land piece by piece. These absurdities expose a truth the International Court of Justice underscored in its July 2025 ruling: Israel is operating an illegal occupation, deliberate starvation, and ethnic cleansing campaign, shielded only by U.S. veto power and Western complicity.
For decades, Israel hid behind myths of morality and victimhood, presenting itself as the Middle East’s only democracy defending against hostility. That veil has now been torn apart by the undeniable images of slaughtered children, bombed hospitals in Rafah, uprooted olive groves in the West Bank, and millions imprisoned under siege. The world sees not a beacon of democracy but a state waging systematic war on a stateless people, turning Gaza into a slaughterhouse under a policy of siege and starvation.
The coming September session of the United Nations could mark the beginning of the end of Israel’s impunity. With NAM nations, Spain, France, the UK, Ireland, Norway, and more EU states ready to recognize Palestine, history is shifting decisively. Recognition will not immediately free Gaza or rebuild what decades of bombs have destroyed, but it will change the rules of the game.
It will make occupation and siege crimes in the eyes of the law, not “disputes,” and finally give Palestinians a sovereign platform to fight for their survival and dignity. This is no longer about politics or negotiation; it is about humanity reclaiming its voice after decades of silence, choosing justice over complicity, choosing statehood over statelessness, choosing life over slaughter. The world has looked into the mirror and seen the cruel face of Israel’s actions—and at long last, it is choosing to stand with Palestine, with recognition, law, and morality as its weapon for long-denied peace.
About Writer:Press Secretary to the President (Rtd)
Former Press Minister, Embassy of Pakistan to France
Former MD, SRBC | Macomb, Michigan, USA
