Opinion
Recognition of Palestine or the destruction of Palestine: The farce of the power of international law
Last September, several countries – including France, Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Andorra, Monaco, and Portugal – announced their recognition of the state of Palestine. This was a direct response to the brutal actions of the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip, which, according to many, amount to ethnic cleansing and genocide.
At first glance, this parade of recognitions appears to be significant news. But in reality, nothing extraordinary is happening. First, more than 120 countries of the world have recognized the independence of Palestine, but this fact in itself has not changed anything in the daily lives of Palestinians; on the contrary, their suffering has increased on an unprecedented scale. Gaza continues to be razed to the ground by bombings, innocent people and children continue to die from hunger and bombs, and deportations in the West Bank continue with the same intensity. According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), as of May 2025, more than 52,535 people have been killed in Gaza, 70% of whom are women and children. In fact, by taking advantage of Hamas' disastrous policy of not abandoning the terrorist method of struggle, Israel is trying to finalize its path to rid the territory of the Arabs completely.
Nothing changes also because Israel makes it clear in open text that it does not care about these recognitions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in a video message that a Palestinian state will not be created west of the Jordan, and the Israeli government continues to threaten to annex the West Bank and effectively destroy Palestinian autonomy.
From Nagorno-Karabakh to Gaza: a parade of impunity
The audacity of Israel has its source in food. The main guarantor of Israel's impunity for even the most brutal actions remains the United States. Washington consistently refuses to recognize Palestine, thereby sending a message that relations with its strategic ally are above the principles of international law. This Israeli-American alliance does not retreat, even in the face of obvious political isolationism on the Palestinian issue. As a result, Israel is confident that no matter how many countries recognize Palestine with the indirect support of the United States, it will not be threatened, and the recognizing countries will not do anything more than that. Israel reads well the rules of international realpolitik, which operate with the same efficiency, for example, in the case of Russia's occupation policy in Ukraine.
The impact of sanctions against Russia, even partial ones, on the Russian economy demonstrates the significant influence of international pressure. The EU, the UK, and several other countries are consistently tightening sanctions, attempting to persuade the Kremlin to adopt a more constructive approach. The European Commission approved the latest package of very tough sanctions on September 19, 2025.
However, the US continues to limit itself to half-measures, preferring, in the person of President Trump, to express "sympathy" through concessions and occasionally threatening Moscow with economic sanctions. As long as the US does not move from these threats to practical steps, Russia perceives these threats as light sarcasm, indecision, and continues the bloody war in Ukraine. And at the heart of it is once again the internal conviction of impunity.
In today's reality, the foundations of all this were laid in Nagorno-Karabakh. During the 2020 war, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan brought the idea of "secession for the sake of salvation" to the international agenda, arguing that the existence of the Armenians of Artsakh is at stake, and the recognition of their subjectivity or independence is a matter of life and death. But the international community did not respond to this call. The UN Security Council was unable or unwilling to adopt a condemnatory resolution at least, even after the complete ethnic cleansing was carried out in Nagorno-Karabakh in late September 2023. And this indifference became a unique message to other aggressors, indicating that they could rely on forceful policies, as they remained inconsequential.
Appreciation without punishment equals legitimization of violence.
Of course, if we are naive, we can ask why, in the case of Palestine, the "recognition for the sake of salvation" formula is considered and applied as an actual working tool to restrain Israel, while in 2020, in the case of Nagorno-Karabakh, it is not working and is not being applied. However, what is happening in Palestine once again proves that if the statements of condemnation and the recognition of the independence of a territory deprived of its population are not followed by the implementation of a punitive mechanism against the aggressor. This subject grossly violates the norms of international law; all this becomes empty words.
In this sense, Netanyahu's conviction about the failure of the Palestinian state has complete grounds. Therein lies the most serious international challenge: any political assessment without punishment in the new parity of international relations is tantamount to legitimizing violence.
Gor Abrahamyan
