Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar at a joint press conference with his Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen in Jerusalem. Photo courtesy of Gideon Saar official Instagram account
Several countries, including France and Britain, have pledged to recognise a Palestinian state on the sidelines of the 80th UN General Assembly this month.
As of September 2025, approximately 147 out of the 193 United Nations member states, while Israel itself is only is recognized as a sovereign state by 163 countries.
The UN Resolution 181, adopted on 29 November 1947, stipulated the end of the British Mandate in Palestine and the partition of the land into two states: an Arab state and a Jewish state.
Yet, while Israel was established, the Arab state never materialized, as the United States and Israel obstructed its creation, with Israel ultimately occupying and confiscating more and more Palestinian land.
The UN Charter enshrines the right of peoples to self-determination as a core principle. For Palestinians, this guarantees that their right to establish a state cannot be subject to Israel’s veto.
Legally, Israel has no authority to deny or grant Palestinian statehood, and the UN has never conditioned Palestine’s existence on Israeli acceptance.
The Franco-Israeli relations have been particularly strained since French President Emmanuel Macron announced his country's plans and co-hosted with Saudi Arabia a conference on the two-state solution at the UN in July.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer last month said the UK would follow suit in recognising a Palestinian state if Israel failed to agree to a truce in the Gaza war triggered in October 2023.
"States like France and the UK that pushed the so-called recognition had made a tremendous mistake," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said at a joint press conference with his visiting Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
Following through on the plans would make it "harder to get to the peace", he added.
"It will destabilise the region. It will push Israel also to have unilateral decisions."
Saar's remarks come after Israel approved a slew of new West Bank settlements, including a major project just east of Jerusalem known as E1, which the international community has warned threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state.
All Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory are considered illegal under international law.
Israel's extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said the E1 colonial project intends to "bury the idea of a Palestinian state".
On Wednesday, he said annexing large parts of the West Bank would "take the idea of dividing our tiny land and establishing a terrorist state at its centre off the agenda once and for all".
Even as the war in Gaza rages, violence has also rocked the West Bank, where at least 973 Palestinians, have been killed by Israeli forces or terrorist settlers, since the Israeli genocidal war in Gaza broke out in October, 2023, according to figures from the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah.
Last week, the United States, a staunch supporter of Israel, blocked US visas for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his staff, preventing them from attending the UN General Assembly session in New York.
* This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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