UK Palestine state recognition – what does recognition mean legally?

On the UK government announcing plans to recognise Palestine as a state in September if Israel does not agree to a ceasefire and two-state solution, Professor Alexander Orakhelashvili, said:

"On 29 July 2025, following the emergency cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement that the United Kingdom will recognise Palestine as a State in September 2025; this was reiterated in the Prime Minister’s speech and in the Foreign Secretary’s statement at the UN, both on the same day. The UK’s decision follows the statement the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, made on social media, that France will recognise Palestine as the UN General Assembly reconvenes in September 2025.

"While the French decision is made on unconditional terms, as is also clear from the Foreign Minister’s statement, the UK Government states that it will recognise Palestine unless Israel fulfils a number of conditions, such as committing to a durable ceasefire in Gaza, refraining from annexations in the West Bank, allowing humanitarian assistance of at least 500 trucks entering Gaza every day, and paves the way for negotiations that would culminate with the Two State solution. It is not entirely clear how Israel would respond to this in the fullness of time, and potential developments over the next few weeks could give a better picture of this, though their initial reaction has been that the UK’s decision rewards Hamas.

"What is the exact legal or political significance of recognising Palestine as a State? In terms of international law, Palestine is already a State within the pre-1967 borders. Statehood depends not as much on factual control of the relevant territory by a political entity, as on that entity’s legal entitlement to exercise sovereignty within that territory. As such, recognition is a concept of a somewhat dubious origin and scope. It is not a criterion for statehood [PDF, 57 KB]; it does not create a State, and its lack does not take the legally existing statehood away.

“So far, Palestine has been recognised as a State by about 120 States across the world (most lately by Norway, Spain and Ireland in 2024), which includes about half of G20 members, and two out of five permanent members of the UN Security Council. Hence, if and when the French and British recognition decisions take effect, the chief political consequence of that would be the continuing increase in the number of political stakeholders who consider Palestine to be a State, and a decrease in the number of those stakeholders who do not consider it to be a State. In fact, the United States of America would remain the only permanent member of the UN Security Council that does not recognise Palestine’s statehood.”