Displaced Palestinians move with their belongings southwards on a road in the Nuseirat refugee camp area in the central Gaza Strip last week. Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images
The recognition last week of a Palestinian State by the United Kingdom, France, Canada and an array of other countries has prompted debate on the practical significance, if any, of this step.
For some, such as Israeli columnist Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, it is no more than an erroneous substitute for boycotts and other punitive measures that should be taken against a state committing genocide. Others argue that recognition will help Palestinians make a stronger case for a ceasefire within existing international diplomatic and legal structures.
What is clear is that recognition of a Palestinian state will mean nothing in terms of the realities of Gaza (and the West Bank) in the absence of some very significant shift in the underlying dynamics that are maintaining the present catastrophic situation. There appears to be little hope of this at present.
In particular, the key external actor, the United States, s
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