Strategic Assessment
On November 29, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly voted to grant Palestine the status of non-member observer state. Legally speaking, such a decision cannot create a state because recognition of statehood is declarative rather than constitutive. Nonetheless, on a practical level, the growing recognition of Palestine as a state by many important states, as well as the UN General Assembly, will ultimately influence whether or not such a state exists, and will therefore in the long run also have a direct impact on Israel’s freedom of conduct in the Palestinian arena. This article analyzes the legal implications of Palestinian statehood for the domestic arena, i.e., relations between Israel and the Palestinians, and on the international arena, and concludes that legal ramifications of the establishment of a Palestinian state seem to be limited, at least during the initial stage. Nevertheless, as long as there is no progress in the negotiations between the sides, the pressure on Israel to allow more freedom of action to the Palestinian authorities and to curtail its own activities in the territory of the Palestinian state is likely to increase.
