Recognition: A First Step
Leila Sansour
Few leaders have turned fear into political currency as relentlessly as Benjamin Netanyahu. For decades, he has convinced Israelis – and many people abroad – that recognition of Palestine is not a step towards peace but a concession to violence, a threat to Israel’s survival. Yet by seeking recognition, Palestinians are offering to bind themselves to treaties, laws and obligations – to act under rules rather than beyond them. Far from endangering Israel, recognition of Palestinian statehood offers the clearest path to its security.
Britain, Canada, Australia and France have recognised Palestine in the last few days. Most nations had already done so, but this move by major Western powers marks a significant moment and will reverberate through the UN conference this week. Israel and the United States’ open hostility to building consensus is deeply troubling, if unsurprising. Recognition allows for transparency and a rules-based framework; clarity would rob Netanyahu of the shadows in which his politics thrives. Cloaking expansion in the rhetoric of security, he pursues not safety but a licence for impunity, seeking to preserve a perpetual state of disorder, where Israel dominates and Palestinians are accountable to nothing but coercion. This is not self-defence; it is the cultivation of chaos.
From my hometown of Bethlehem – now reduced to 13 per cent of its original territory by the Israeli wall and settlements – I have seen how the rhetoric of security has provided cover for the hollowing out of my ancient and once vibrant city, and how this assault on our lives and society has only hardened Palestinians’ antipathy toward Israelis. The devastation of Bethlehem has long weighed on me as we have sought to confront the machinery of domination.
Today, that sorrow is eclipsed by the ruin of Gaza. Yet the Israeli rhetoric of security endures, destroying cities and taking lives, leaving only barren ground and desolation – for Israelis as well as Palestinians.
Netanyahu’s policies fracture Palestinian collective agency, but this fragmentation does not erase the demands of a people; it disperses them into unpredictable, chaotic currents. Political structures may be dismantled, administrations undermined and leaders displaced, but Palestinian identity, memory and aspiration endure. Trying to suppress them may yield temporary tactical victories for Israel, but it guarantees a future of endless turmoil.
Recognition of Palestinian statehood is the corrective to this chaos. It is an act not of concession, but of discipline and clarity. It formalises the reality that Palestinians live on this land, and that we will continue to live here. Recognition does not create these facts; it simply acknowledges them. It offers Israel a predictable set of obligations, creating a stage where the security of both peoples is not merely proclaimed but enforced through verified agreements, monitored borders and structured co-operation. Formal Palestinian statehood implies transparency and legal accountability. It is a radical inversion of the fear-driven dynamic that Netanyahu exploits.
It opens avenues for Israel that are impossible under the current unilateral system. International guarantees can anchor security arrangements, cross-border monitoring can prevent escalation, and legally binding treaties can formalise commitments from both sides. Recognition enables co-operative security architectures, not as an abstract promise but as enforceable compacts that channel behaviour and clarify obligations. It offers a chance to replace perpetual military entanglement with law-based engagement and practical oversight. Failure to recognise Palestine entrenches instability and makes violent actors thrive.
Recognition is not an endpoint. It cannot, by itself, end violence. It must be followed by a clear sequence of practical measures: an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, uninterrupted humanitarian aid, a timetable for rebuilding and rehabilitation, the deployment of international monitors, and the negotiation of binding legal frameworks that turn Palestinian statehood into a living instrument of order rather than a ceremonial gesture. But recognition remains the necessary first step – an acknowledgment that Palestinians will remain on our land. We cannot, and will not, disappear.