International Recognition of Palestine

There are few places on Earth that are as geopolitically complex and controversial as Palestine, a nation that not everyone agrees is a nation. How did this come to be? And which countries recognize Palestine?

We’ll shed some light on these questions as we explore a brief history of Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and international recognition of Palestine. See our post on the international recognition of Israel to see how the two compare.

Below is a map of Palestine, comprising the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, its major cities, and its borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt.

Palestine Map 

Since the official Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the world has been divided in officially recognizing it as a nation. Out of the 193 United Nations member states, 138 countries officially recognize the State of Palestine.

On the map below, countries that recognize Palestine can be seen in green. Most countries in the regions of Asia, Central and South America, Africa, and the Middle East officially recognize the State of Palestine, while most countries in North America and Western Europe do not.

Mapped: Countries Recognizing Palestine

Before taking a closer look at how international recognition of Palestine has changed over time and some of the reasons countries decide to recognize it or not, we’ll learn about the history of Palestine and its journey to globally recognized statehood.  

A Short History of Palestine and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Palestine Region

Before it had a national identity, the area of modern-day Palestine was part of the larger Region of Palestine, whose name is related to the Land of the Philistines, which comes from the Ancient Greek word Philistia, referring to the lands between modern-day Gaza and Tel Aviv.

The Region of Palestine has a tumultuous history as the birthplace of Christianity and Judaism as well as a crossroads of culture, trade, commerce, and politics. Over the centuries, the region was controlled by various empires; namely, the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Neo-Babylonian Empire, Achaemenid Persian Empire, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, and various caliphates before having a predominantly Muslim population and becoming part of the Ottoman Empire in the 16^th century.

Mandatory Palestine

During World War I, the Arab population of the Ottoman Empire was encouraged by the United Kingdom to rebel against the ruling Turks. In exchange for this rebellion, the British Government had agreed, by way of the McMahon—Hussein Correspondence, to support the formation of an independent Arab State.

Despite its agreement to support the formation of an independent Arab State, the British Government also engaged in a covert treaty at this time known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement. This agreement between the UK and France established guidelines for how the nations would divide the Arab-majority territories in a partition of the Ottoman Empire.

The result of the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the partition of the Ottoman Empire was the establishment of League of Nations mandates controlled by the British and French. Among these was the British-administered Mandate for Palestine.

In addition to gaining control of Mandatory Palestine, Britain had issued a public statement called the Balfour Declaration announcing its support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish People.

This was in line with the goals of the Zionist Movement, which was growing in response to antisemitism in Europe. Part of Britain’s motivation for announcing its support of this plan was to garner the support of Jewish people in the war. The land of Mandatory Palestine includes the historic homelands of the Jewish people, making it an ideal location in the eyes of Zionists.

Britain’s Balfour Declaration would pave the way for the formation of the State of Israel and be considered partly responsible for the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.

Over the next three decades after the establishment of Mandatory Palestine, tensions grew between the local Arab population and the increasing numbers of Jewish refugees. There were also violent uprisings by the Arab and Jewish populations against the British authorities in Palestine during this time.

Eventually, the UK made the decision to withdraw from Palestine and hand the resolution of the “Question of Palestine” over to the United Nations, which proposed a partition plan that would create a Palestinian State as well as an Israeli State. This was known as the “Two-State Solution,” though it was never successfully implemented.

Several successive violent clashes, including the 1947-1949 Palestine War and the Six-Day War of 1967 led to an expansion of Israeli territory and deepened the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The conflict has displaced millions of Palestinian refugees around the world.  

The Palestinian Declaration of Independence, announced in 1988, was met with mixed reactions from the international community.

The United Nations and Palestine

In 1975, the UN created the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), to protect the rights of the Palestinian people.

In pursuit of international recognition, sovereignty, and diplomatic relations, the State of Palestine has sought membership in the UN since declaring independence. This has been repeatedly opposed by Israel, the United States, and several other countries.

While Palestine has still not acquired full membership in the UN, it did gain non-Member Observer State status in the 2012 General Assembly. This achievement significantly enhanced Palestine’s international standing and has allowed it to participate in various UN activities and agencies, opening avenues for legal recourse through international institutions.

The vote to grant Palestine this status received overwhelming support; countries that voted against the move included the US, Israel, Canada, the Czech Republic, Panama, Nauru, Palau, and Micronesia.

President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas made another appeal for full UN membership in 2022.

Countries That Recognize Palestine

As of October 2026, 157 of the 193 UN member states officially recognize the State of Palestine, per the dated table below. Twenty of those recognitions arrived in just two years: nine states in 2024 and eleven more around the September 2025 UN General Assembly, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia.

Many of the countries not on this list state that they will abstain from recognizing Palestine until productive negotiations between Palestine and Israel take place. One of the motivations some countries have for not recognizing Palestine is strong diplomatic ties with either Israel or the US.

Countries That Do Not Recognize Palestine

Thirty-six UN member states do not recognize Palestine as of October 2026. The group has shrunk fast: it included every G7 member as recently as mid-2025; today the United States, Germany, Italy and Japan remain, and the US is the only permanent member of the UN Security Council still outside the recognizing group.

Although these countries don’t officially recognize Palestine as an independent state, many of them support a two-state solution and have diplomatic relations with Palestine.

Recent Developments: the 2024-25 Recognition Wave

The 2024 wave

Nine states recognized Palestine in 2024, the largest single-year group since 2011: Spain, Ireland, Norway and Slovenia in a coordinated European move in May and June, Armenia in June, and four Caribbean states (Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Bahamas) in the spring. The same year, Palestine’s bid for full UN membership won a Security Council majority but was vetoed by the United States in April 2024; the General Assembly responded with resolution ES-10/23, expanding Palestine’s participation rights and declaring it qualified for membership.

September 2025: the G7 dam breaks

Around the UN General Assembly of September 21-22, 2025, eleven more states recognized Palestine, including the first G7 members to do so: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal on September 21, followed by France, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Andorra, San Marino and Mexico. Recognition thus became the norm rather than the exception across Western Europe, leaving Germany and Italy as the EU’s largest holdouts.

What recognition does, and does not, change

Belgium announced at the same 2025 Assembly that it would recognize Palestine but tied the formal step to conditions, and had not completed it as of October 2026, a reminder that announcements and recognition are not the same thing. And recognition by 157 states does not confer UN membership: that requires a Security Council recommendation, where a single veto, so far cast by the United States, blocks the path. Palestine therefore remains a non-member observer state, a status it has held since 2012. For the mirror image of this map, see our page on the international recognition of Israel.

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