On Sunday, the UK, Canada, Australia, and Portugal recognised an independent Palestine, indicating further isolation of Israel on the global stage. The UN General Assembly, in session in New York, is set to see the international community voice its support for the two-state solution and censure Israeli action in Gaza, described by a UN probe mission as genocidal. The change in the UK's stance is significant because the British Crown was behind the 1917 Balfour Declaration that sowed the seed for a Jewish homeland in Palestine -- Palestine was under British mandate till the end of World War II and the birth of Israel in 1948. With over 75% of UN members now recognising the Palestinian State, Tel Aviv is now leaning on its main backer, the US, more than ever: Multiple surveys suggest that support for Israel in the US is declining, and steeply.
On the ground, all this adds up to very little as of now. The toll in the war has crossed 65,000, and millions have fled Gaza, a wasteland of the dead and debris. But the symbolism of the world closing ranks for Palestine holds long-term repercussions for the region. Global activism in favour of a Palestinian State, envisaged in the 1993 Oslo Accords and agreed to by Israel, can turn the Jewish State into an international outcast, give a fillip to a new resistance in West Asia, reverse Tel Aviv's recent diplomatic gains in the Gulf achieved through the Abraham Accords, and lead to the making of new solidarities. Another intifada (uprising) looks unlikely: Israel's occupation of the West Bank and its grip over the Palestinian National Authority, under president Mahmoud Abbas, has hollowed out resistance. But history is full of strange twists and turns.
An independent Palestine appeared as good as dead two years ago. The terror attack by Hamas fighters within Israel that left hundreds dead and many taken hostage, saw an outraged global community sympathising with Tel Aviv. But the Benjamin Netanyahu administration's disproportionate response, its refusal to distinguish between terrorists and civilian residents of Gaza, including children, and brazen aggression against neighbouring nations, have deprived Israel of the moral high ground, and revived support for a free Palestine. Tel Aviv's unilateralism, refusal of its fighters to spare even UN personnel, health care workers, and children in food queues, and stonewalling of a ceasefire have cost Israel friends. Palestinians number over 10 million, half of them refugees; the current war has further diminished the prospects of the two people coexisting in peace. That has only increased the precarity of life in the region -- both Palestinian and Israeli. Tel Aviv could change course for its own good.