How widespread is recognition of Palestine?published at 11:59 British Summer Time
Lucy Gilder
BBC Verify journalist
Image source, Getty ImagesPresident Emmanuel Macron announced last night that France will officially recognise a Palestinian state in September, in a move that has angered Israel and the US.
Of the UN’s 193 member states, at least 147 recognise Palestine. More than 80 countries, including nations in the then-Soviet Union like Ukraine and Russia, recognised Palestine in 1988.
Most major Latin American economies, including Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, have all since established relations with Palestine.
Sweden was the first EU member in western Europe to recognise the state of Palestine 2014, and Spain, Ireland, Norway and Slovenia did so a decade later.
But many other powerful Western nations have been reluctant to do so.
France is just the the first of the large industrialised G7 countries to recognise Palestine. Others – including Germany, the UK and Canada – have expressed willingness to do so, but only in the context of a long-term two-state solution and not unilateral recognition.