Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a de jure (by law) sovereign state in the Middle East.
The region of modern-day Palestine has been ruled by several groups, including the Greeks, the Romans, the Ottoman Empire, and the British after World War I. When the British took control in 1918, the League of Nations mandated that Palestine needed to establish a Jewish national homeland in Palestine.
In 1947, the United Nations proposed a plan to partition Palestine into two sections: an independent Jewish state and an independent Arab state. This plan would separate Jerusalem from the two states, making it an internationalized territory. Arab leaders opposed the plan, arguing that they represented the majority of the population in certain regions and should be given more territory.
Israel became a state in May 1948 and the British withdrew from Palestine. Almost immediately that same year, the Arab-Israeli War broke out between Israel and Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon. This was only the beginning of several decades of conflict to come.
In 1988, the Palestinian Declaration of Independence proclaimed the establishment of the State of Palestine. The Declaration was recognized by several countries shortly after. In 1993 and 1995, the Oslo Accords were signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization to resolve the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including establishing the Palestinian National Authority as a self-governing interim administration in areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Today, Palestinians continue to fight for an official state that is formally recognized by all countries. Palestine occupies key areas of land, including the Gaza Strip and West Bank; however, many Israelis continue to settle in these locations.
Palestinian leaders of Hamas presented a document in 2017 that proposed a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and defined borders, but it refused to recognize Israel as a state and was rejected by the Israeli government. Instability, displacement, and violence still occur throughout the region.
Countries that Recognize Palestine
As of July 2019, 138 of the 193 United Nations (UN) members have recognized Palestine. Many of the countries that do not recognize Palestine as a state, such as the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, and Canada, support a two-state solution but their recognition of a Palestinian state is conditioned on direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority.
Countries are listed by their date of recognition.
1988
- Algeria (November 15)
- Bahrain (November 15)
- Iraq (November 15)
- Kuwait (November 15)
- Libya (November 15)
- Malaysia (November 15)
- Mauritania (November 15)
- Morocco (November 15)
- Somalia (November 15)
- Tunisia (November 15)
- Turkey (November 15)
- Yemen (November 15)
- Afghanistan (November 16)
- Bangladesh (November 16)
- Cuba (November 16)
- Indonesia (November 16)
- Jordan (November 16)
- Madagascar (November 16)
- Malta (November 16)
- Nicaragua (November 16)
- Pakistan (November 16)
- Qatar (November 16)
- Saudi Arabia (November 16)
- United Arab Emirates (November 16)
- Serbia (November 16)
- Zambia (November 16)
- Albania (November 17)
- Brunei Darussalam (November 17)
- Djibouti (November 17)
- Sudan (November 17)
- Czech Republic (November 18)
- Slovakia (November 18)
- Egypt (November 18)
- Gambia (November 18)
- India (November 18)
- Nigeria (November 18)
- Seychelles (November 18)
- Sri Lanka (November 18)
- Cyprus (November 18)
- Belarus (November 19)
- Guinea (November 19)
- Namibia (November 19)
- Russia (November 19)
- Ukraine (November 19)
- Vietnam (November 19)
- China (November 20)
- Burkina Faso (November 21)
- Comoros (November 21)
- Guinea-Bissau (November 21)
- Mali (November 21)
- Cambodia (November 21)
- Mongolia (November 22)
- Senegal (November 22)
- Hungary (November 23)
- Cape Verde (November 24)
- North Korea (November 24)
- Niger (November 24)
- Romania (November 24)
- Tanzania (November 24)
- Bulgaria (November 25)
- Maldives (November 28)
- Ghana (November 29)
- Ghana (November 29)
- Zimbabwe (November 29)
- Chad (December 1)
- Laos (December 2)
- Sierra Leone (December 3)
- Uganda (December 3)
- Republic of the Congo (December 5)
- Angola (December 6)
- Mozambique (December 8)
- São Tomé and Principe (December 10)
- Democratic Republic of the Congo (December 10)
- Gabon (December 12)
- Oman (December 13)
- Poland (December 14)
- Botswana (December 19)
- Nepal (December 19)
- Burundi (December 22)
- Central African Republic (December 23)
- Bhutan (December 25)
1989
- Rwanda (January 2)
- Ethiopia (February 4)
- Iran (February 4)
- Benin (May or before)
- Equatorial Guinea (May or before)
- Kenya (May or before)
- Vanuatu (August 21)
- Philippines (September)
1991
1992
- Kazakhstan (April 6)
- Azerbaijan (April 15)
- Turkmenistan (April 17)
- Georgia (April 25)
- Bosnia and Herzegovina (May 27)
- Tajikistan (September 6)
1994
- Uzbekistan (September 25)
- Papua New Guinea (October 4)
1995
- Kyrgyzstan (September 12)
1998
- Malawi (October 23)
2004
- East Timor (March 1)
2005
- Paraguay (March 25)
2006
- Montenegro (July 24)
2008
- Costa Rica (February 5)
- Lebanon (November 30)
- Côte d-Ivoire (December 1)
2009
- Venezuela (April 27)
- Dominican Republic (July 14)
2010
2011
- Chile (January 7)
- Guyana (January 13)
- Peru (January 24)
- Suriname (February 1)
- Uruguay (March 15)
- Lesotho (June 6)
- South Sudan (July 9)
- Syria (July 18)
- Liberia (July 19)
- El Salvador (August 25)
- Honduras (August 26)
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (August 29)
- Belize (September 9)
- Dominica (September 19)
- Antigua and Barbuda (September 22)
- Grenada (September 25)
- Iceland (December 15)
2012
- Thailand (January 18)
2013
2014
- Sweden (October 30)
2015
- Saint Lucia (September 14)
2018
- Colombia (August 3)
2019
- Saint Kitts and Nevis (July 30)
The two non-members of the UN who recognize Palestine are:
- Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
- Holy See