Given that just a few days ago Kosovo issued a unilateral declaration of independence, it is not surprising that Palestine is thinking of doing the same thing. A senior Palestinian official is saying the Palestinians ought to unilaterally declare a state if peace talks with Israel do not succeed.
With the Annapolis process going nowhere, the Kosovo precedent might indeed offer the Palestinian leadership a golden opportunity to seize the initiative, reset the agenda and restore its tarnished reputation in the eyes of its own people. If this leadership truly believes, despite all evidence to the contrary, that a decent two-state solution is still possible, now is an ideal moment to reaffirm the legal existence (albeit under continuing belligerent occupation) of the state of Palestine, and to call on all those countries that did not extend diplomatic recognition to Palestine in 1988 to do so now.
The problem is that when Yasser Arafat declared a Palestinian state in 1988 there was no international recognition forthcoming, and there is no guarantee that 20 years later, things have changed. For the US and the EU, Palestinian independence, if it is to be recognized and effective at all, must be directly negotiated on a wildly unequal bilateral basis between the occupying power and the occupied people with emphasis laid on attaining the final agreement of the occupying power.
In American and EU eyes, a Kosovar declaration of independence from Serbian sovereignty should be recognized, even if Serbia does not agree. However, their attitude was radically different when Palestine declared independence from Israeli occupation on Nov. 15, 1988. Then the US and EU countries were conspicuously absent as over 100 countries recognized the new state. The West’s nonrecognition made this declaration of independence symbolic. The Palestinian leadership would make clear that if the US and the EU, having just recognized a second Albanian state on the sovereign territory of a UN member state, will not now recognize a Palestinian state on a tiny portion of occupied Palestinian homeland, then the Palestinians would be free and just in seeking other options to liberate themselves and their rightful homeland. As was expected, Kosovo issued its unilateral declaration of independence. And as everybody predicted, the United States and most European Union countries with which this declaration was coordinated, rushed to extend diplomatic recognition to this new country. However, Palestine is not Kosovo. Palestine is under Israeli occupation and for independence it needs to acquire independence.
Declaring a state is no problem; what matters is international recognition. International recognition is not the end all and be all of statehood but it is a vital aspect. In the case of Kosovo, it has secured international recognition, beginning with the US. Can the Palestinians guarantee they will receive the same recognition, especially from the same source?
