Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters talks about Palestine during an address to the UN General Assembly on September 27. Photo / United Nations
By Nik Dirga, RNZ
World leaders are moving towards accepting the idea of Palestinian statehood, but New Zealand has not officially recognised the country. What exactly does recognition mean and what would it change?
In the past week, a flurry of major nations have agreed to support Palestinian statehood, including Canada, Britain and France.
New Zealand has not yet made that leap, although the Government has repeatedly called for an end to violence in Gaza and steps towards a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestine territories.
The Palestinian territories have been embroiled in war since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1200 people, mostly civilians. The Israel-Hamas war had since left more than 60,000 Palestinians dead, Gaza’s Health Ministry said, and widespread famine had broken out as well.
At the moment, Palestine is officially recognised by 147 of the UN’s 193 member countries, not counting those that announced plans this week.
After Britain’s announcement this week that it would recognise Palestine by September unless Israel met certain conditions, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said New Zealand wouldn’t be following its lead “at this stage”.
“Obviously, I will be talking with [British PM] Sir Keir Starmer around his position, which is a conditional statehood.”
In response to questions from RNZ, Luxon said New Zealand had long supported the eventual recognition of Palestinian statehood, but that the immediate focus should be on getting aid into Gaza rather than “fragmenting and talking about all sorts of other things that are distractions”.
“We need to put the pressure on Israel to get humanitarian assistance unfettered, at scale, at volume, into Gaza,” he said.
“You can talk about a whole bunch of other things, but for right now, the world needs to focus.”
In Parliament on Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said he stood by a statement that “it is a matter of when, not if, New Zealand will recognise Palestine statehood”.
“Yes, we steadfastly support the establishment of a Palestinian State and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. We have done so for decades.”
However, when asked if now was the time to recognise Palestine, Peters said, “we do need to see progress on some of the fundamental issues relating to a Palestinian State’s legitimacy and viability, including representative governance, commitments to non-violence, regional support and security guarantees for Israel”.
“If we recognise the State of Palestine, New Zealand wants to know that what we are recognising is a legitimate, representative, viable political entity.”
University of Otago professor of politics and international relations Robert Patman said while the Luxon-led Government supported the two-state solution, “it seems reluctant to show leadership”.
The Government has said New Zealand has limited influence over a conflict on the other side of the world.
“This claim does not sit comfortably with the New Zealand Government’s purported support for an international rules-based order,” Patman said.
“Distance from a conflict clearly should not determine whether flagrant violations of international law such as in Gaza are tolerated or condemned.”
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark also told RNZ’s Midday Report on Thursday that New Zealand was “lagging behind” by not recognising statehood.
“If New Zealand can’t act in these circumstances, when can it act?”
There’s been a groundswell of recent announcements from Britain, France and Canada this week announcing proposals to recognise Palestine timed around the UN General Assembly next month.
In 2024, a group of UN experts called on all United Nations member states to recognise the State of Palestine, to bring about an immediate ceasefire in Gaza amid the Israel-Gaza war.
Australia this month joined that group.
“My entire political life, I’ve said I support two states, the right of Israel to exist within secure borders and the right of Palestinians to have their legitimate aspirations for their own state realised,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
“That’s my objective.”
Dozens of other countries already recognise Palestine.
Some of these recent announcements come with caveats such as ensuring free and open elections and the disarming of Hamas.
Starmer said Britain would recognise Palestine in September “unless the Israeli Government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza” and other conditions.
The UN also held an international conference on the question of Palestine and the implementation of the two-state solution in New York from July 28-29.
Palestine exists in a peculiar quasi-state limbo. There are no internationally agreed-upon borders, no globally recognised capital or army.
The roots of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people date back centuries. British troops took control of the country from the Ottoman Empire after World War I and ruled it until 1948. The UN proposed partitioning Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, but the plan was rejected.
Jewish leaders in Palestine declared an independent state known as Israel when British rule ended. That declaration sparked war with Arab nation neighbours and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians became refugees. After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured much of the Palestinian territories from other Middle Eastern nations.
Israel continues to occupy those territories. In 1988, the State of Palestine was officially declared by the Palestine Liberation Organisation, claiming the territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The state of Palestine has been a non-member observer state of the United Nations since 2012.
The two-state solution that has been proposed for years would allow an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital, existing alongside Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government rejects the two-state solution.
It’s more of a symbolic step than anything, but it acknowledges Palestinian self-determination and allows the establishment of full diplomatic relations.
“The big difference with recognising a Palestinian state, as opposed to expressing a willingness to do so sometime in the future, is that it would significantly reduce the scope for diplomatic ambiguity or sitting on the fence,” Patman said.
University of South Australia senior lecturer in law Juliette McIntyre told the ABC recently a state has certain defining features under international law.
These features include a permanent population, a determinate territory, an “effective” government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.
“In some ways, the most important thing is recognition by other states – this enables entering into diplomatic relations, and membership of international organisations,” McIntyre said.
The recent announcements by Britain, Canada and others come as coverage of death and famine in Gaza has escalated.
“Recognising a Palestinian state also conveys an urgent acknowledgement that the current situations in Gaza and the West Bank have been characterised by acts that constitute war crimes and represent an unacceptable failure by the occupying power, Israel, to live up to its legal responsibilities toward the Palestinian population it has under its control,” Patman said.
Well, under United Nations rules, it could be.
To become a member of the United Nations, Palestine would submit an application to the Secretary-General and accept member obligations.
The UN Security Council would vote on the admission, but none of the five permanent members – China, France, Britain, Russia and the United States – can vote against it.
If the Security Council recommends admission, it then goes on to the full General Assembly, where a two-thirds majority vote is necessary.
South Sudan is the most recent country to join as a member, in 2011.
The United States has previously vetoed attempts to grant Palestine membership.
The US has had long-standing support for a two-state solution but hasn’t gone so far as to support Palestinian statehood. It does recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation as the representative entity of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian National Authority as the government of the territories.
US President Donald Trump has frequently supported Israel and expressed reservations about recognising Palestine, telling reporters that Starmer’s plan would “reward Hamas”.
“I don’t think they should be rewarded.”
Trump also threatened the potential of a trade deal with Canada over its overtures on Palestine.
The US Department of State this week called the UN’s recent two-state conference a “publicity stunt” and “a slap in the face to the victims of October 7”, and said France’s announcement was “welcomed by Hamas”.
The US could again veto a motion on Palestinian statehood if it comes before the Security Council.
Patman said, in his view, “the National-led Government may be nervous about offending the Trump administration and by taking incremental steps toward recognition may be seeking to minimise that possibility, especially if it believes Trump may be reconsidering his hitherto staunch support for Netanyahu’s stance towards Gaza [and West Bank]”.
New Zealand has signed a joint statement with 14 other countries expressing a willingness to recognise the State of Palestine as a necessary step towards a two-state solution.
New Zealand also recently joined 24 countries in calling for an end to the war in Gaza and criticising what they called the inhumane killing of Palestinians.
New Zealand had announced $37.5 million in humanitarian aid for the conflict, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said. It also recently banned some Israeli politicians from travel to New Zealand.
Realistically, Palestine statehood and recognition by the UN won’t happen overnight. But the declarations are also being seen as an attempt to revive peace talks and end the violence.
“The window for peace through the two-state solution appeared to be locked shut after the collapse of the peace process that started with real hope in the 1990s,” the BBC’s international editor Jeremy Bowen said.
“Britain’s decision to recognise Palestine is a diplomatic crowbar to try to reopen it.”
New Zealand is a small player on the global scene, but the escalation of major global powers this week chiming in could make Israel more isolated on the issue.
“After making such declarations, it will be more difficult for the likes of Britain, Germany and Australia to continue to provide military and intelligence assistance to a Netanyahu Government that is using such military force to deny the possibility of a Palestinian state and the outcome of a two-state solution,” Patman said.