Following nearly two years of war in Gaza, Britain, Australia, Canada, and Portugal officially recognized a Palestinian state on Sunday, with France, Belgium, and other nations expected to follow suit at the UN General Assembly.
Here is an overview of the diplomatic recognition of the state, which was unilaterally proclaimed by the Palestinian leadership in exile in 1988. Of the territory claimed by the state, Israel currently occupies the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip is largely in ruins.
Which countries recognize or will recognize the State of Palestine?
Answer: Three-quarters of UN members.
According to an AFP tally, at least 145 out of 193 UN member countries now recognize the State of Palestine. The count includes Britain and Canada—the first G7 countries to do so—as well as Australia and Portugal. AFP has not yet obtained recent confirmation from three African countries.
Several other countries, including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Malta, are expected to follow suit during a summit on the future of the two-state solution, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on Monday at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Russia, along with all Arab countries, almost all African and Latin American countries, and most Asian countries, including India and China, are already on the list.
Algeria was the first country to officially recognize a Palestinian state on November 15, 1988, just minutes after the late Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat unilaterally proclaimed an independent Palestinian state. Dozens of other countries followed in the weeks and months that followed, with another wave of recognitions occurring in late 2010 and early 2011. The recent Israeli offensive in Gaza has now prompted an additional 13 countries to recognize the state.
Who does not?
Answer: At least 45 countries, including Israel, the United States, and their allies.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government completely rejects the idea of a Palestinian state. In Asia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore are among the countries that do not recognize Palestine. Neither does Cameroon in Africa, Panama in Latin America, or most countries in Oceania. Europe is the most divided continent on the issue, split almost 50-50 over Palestinian statehood.
Until the mid-2010s, the only countries recognizing the State of Palestine, apart from Turkey, were those of the former Soviet bloc. Now, some former Eastern Bloc countries, such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, do not recognize a Palestinian state on a bilateral level. Western and northern Europe were until recently united in non-recognition, with the exception of Sweden, which extended recognition in 2014. However, the war in Gaza has changed this, with Norway, Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia following Sweden’s lead to recognize the state in 2024, before the United Kingdom and Portugal did so on Sunday. Italy and Germany do not currently plan on recognizing a Palestinian state.
What does recognition mean?
Romain Le Boeuf, a professor of international law at the University of Aix-Marseille in southern France, described the recognition of Palestinian statehood as “one of the most complicated questions” in international law, calling it “a little like a halfway point between the political and juridical.” He told AFP that states are free to choose the timing and form of recognition, with great variations that are either explicit or implicit.
According to Le Boeuf, there is no official office to register recognitions. “The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank puts all they consider to be acts of recognition on its own list, but from a purely subjective point of view. In the same way, other states will say that they have or have not recognized, but without really having to justify themselves,” he said.
However, there is one point on which international law is quite clear: “Recognition does not mean that a state has been created, no more than the lack of recognition prevents the state from existing.” While recognition carries largely symbolic and political weight, he said that three-quarters of countries are effectively saying “that Palestine meets all the necessary conditions to be a state.”
Lawyer and Franco-British law professor Philippe Sands wrote in the New York Times in mid-August 2025, “I know for many people this seems only symbolic, but actually in terms of symbolism, it is sort of a game changer. Because once you recognize Palestinian statehood… you essentially put Palestine and Israel on level footing in terms of their treatment under international law.”
