Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia have recognised Palestinian statehood, a symbolic response to Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza and territorial expansion in the occupied West Bank.
More states, including France and Portugal, are expected to recognise Palestine in the coming days after the announcements on Sunday.
Israel has responded in recent days by doubling down.
Shortly before the announcement, Shosh Bedrosian, a spokesperson for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the PM had called the act “absurd and simply a reward for terrorism”.
At an event in occupied East Jerusalem on September 15, Netanyahu promised his supporters that there “will be no Palestinian state”.
While this act by the three states – Canada, the UK and Australia – grabbed the world’s attention