A PEOPLE WHO THINK THEMSELF A NATION IS ONE:

Palestinian statehood: quality as well as quantity: More states recognise the state of Palestine than an independent Kosovo, but while the latter is unquestioned by the Western media, the former is deemed an aspiration (John Whitbeck, 1/14/11, Al-Ahram Weekly)

While still under foreign belligerent occupation, the state of Palestine possesses all the customary international law criteria for sovereign statehood. No portion of its territory is recognised by any other country (other than Israel) as any other country's sovereign territory and, indeed, Israel has only asserted sovereignty over a small portion of its territory, expanded East Jerusalem, leaving sovereignty over the rest both literally and legally uncontested.

In this context, it may be enlightening to consider the quality as well as the quantity of the states extending diplomatic recognition.

Of the world's nine most populous states, eight (all except the United States) recognise the state of Palestine. Of the world's 20 most populous states, 15 (all except the United States, Japan, Mexico, Germany and Thailand) recognise the state of Palestine.

By contrast, the 72 UN member states that currently recognise the Republic of Kosovo as an independent state include only one of the nine most populous states (the United States) and only four of the 20 most populous states (the United States, Japan, Germany and Turkey). When, in July, the International Court of Justice held that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence did not violate international law because international law is silent on the subject of the legality of declarations of independence (meaning that no declarations of independence violate international law and all are "legal", albeit subject to the political decisions of sovereign states to recognise or not the independence declared), the United States responded by calling on all countries that had not already recognised Kosovo to do so promptly. Five months later, only three more have seen fit to do so -- Honduras, Kiribati and Tuvalu.

If the Arab League were now to call on the minority of UN member states that have not already recognised Palestine to do so promptly it is certain that the response would be far superior (both in quantity and in quality) to the response to the recent American appeal on behalf of Kosovo. It should do so.