At a meeting in Algiers on 15th November 1988, the Palestine National Council, then led by Yasser Arafat, declared the establishment of a Palestinian State in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza with its capital in Jerusalem.
In December 1988, the UN General Assembly backed the proposition in Resolution 43/177. This acknowledged “the proclamation of the State of Palestine by the Palestine National Council on 15 November 1988” and affirmed “the need to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their sovereignty over their territory occupied since 1967”. This resolution was passed by 102 votes to 2, only the US and Israel voting against.
This near unanimous support at the UN for the establishment of a Palestinian State has continued until today. A UN conference on Palestine, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, took place at UN headquarters in New York from 28th to 30th July 2025, which endorsed a Declaration on “the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution” [1]. On 12th September 2025, this was endorsed by the General Assembly by 142 votes to 9. As usual, Israel and the US voted against, as did Argentina, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Tonga.
At the time of writing, 167 of the 193 members of the UN have recognised the State of Palestine. States that have done so recently include Andorra, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Portugal and the UK.
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Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, right wing members of Netanyahu’s Government, amongst others, have demanded that Israel respond to the growing international support for a Palestinian state by annexing the West Bank to Israel—and by so doing seek to eliminate any possibility of a Palestinian State ever being established.
However, such a step has implications for the normalisation of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and perhaps with Bahrain and Morocco, Israel’s other partners in the Abraham Accords.
Back in 2020, President Trump vetoed Netahyahu’s plan to annex areas of the West Bank surrounding the Jewish settlements there, most likely because the UAE refused to normalise relations with Israel if annexation of this kind went ahead. When the Accord was signed in August 2020, the UAE’s ambassador to Washington, Yousef Al Otaiba, said that “the agreement immediately stops annexation” and “maintains the viability of a two-state solution as endorsed by the Arab League and international community” [2].
So, it was no surprise that the UAE responded to the speculation about annexation, leaving little doubt that, if it happened, normalisation with Israel would come to an end. UAE official, Lana Nusseibeh, said [3]:
“From the very beginning, we viewed the [Abraham] Accords as a way to enable our continued support for the Palestinian people and their legitimate aspiration for an independent state.
“Annexation in the West Bank would constitute a red line for the UAE. It would severely undermine the vision and spirit of [the] Accords, end the pursuit of regional integration and would alter the widely shared consensus on what the trajectory of this conflict should be—two states living side by side in peace, prosperity and security.”
With that, President Trump had no choice but repeat what he did in 2020, that is, veto any Netanyahu plans to annex West Bank territory, otherwise, his “historic and transformative Abraham Accords” (in the words of the White House recently [4]) would likely disappear from history. So, on 25th September just before Netanyahu arrived in New York to speak to the UN General Assemly, Trump declared [5]:
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. It’s not going to happen. I’m not allowing Israel to annex the West Bank. There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now.”
Trump added that he had spoken to Netanyahu about this. He didn’t say that Netanyahu had agreed to comply. It’s ironic that a small Arab state, less than 15% of whose population is Arab, has forced Trump to force Netanyahu to comply.
Assuming Netanyahu does comply, President Trump’s “historic and transformative Abraham Accords” will remain in being at least for now.
As for further normalisation, Saudi Arabia’s position was spelt out in a Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement of 5th February 2025 which said [6]:
“His Royal Highness [the Crown Prince] emphasized that Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that.”
In the light of this, it’s highly unlikely that Saudi Arabia (or any other Arab state) will normalise relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state—and that’s not going to happen any time soon.
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Unfortunately, with or without occupation, Israel will continue to control every aspect of Palestinian life in the West Bank—and, unlike the Jewish settler neighbours, Palestinians will have no say whatsoever in the matter.
David Morrison
27 September 2025
References
[1] www.un.org/unispal/document/un-high-level-international-conference-new-york-declaration-29jul2025/
[2] www.uae-embassy.org/news/statements-and-reactions-regarding-uae-israel-peace-accord
{3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2rgjk87y2o
[4] http://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/world/middleeast/abraham-accords-peace-trump-israel-netanyahu.html
[6] https://x.com/KSAmofaEN/status/1886953044484473007/photo/1
Irish Political Review 