Kosovo and Palestine

In practice, Kosovo is a functional state, with its own borders and exercise of power. They even cite it as an example of state formation that Palestine should follow in the future. In formal terms, more states have recognized Palestine than have recognized Kosovo. A look at the list of states that have recognized Kosovo and those that have recognized Palestine proves the hypocrisy of some of them. It proves that recognition is simply a political act. That is why Palestine has been recognized by several states, including European ones, which have not recognized Kosovo. The statement of a Palestinian ambassador, who said that he did not recognize Kosovo because it opened an embassy in Jerusalem, is also hypocritical. If this was really the reason, then they had a full 13 years to do this before Kosovo opened this embassy.

In recent days, the Kosovo case has been mentioned a lot when it comes to making Palestine a functional state. It is even rumored that the Tony Blair Institute, an organization founded by the former British Prime Minister, has drawn up a plan for the Gaza territory to be placed under international administration during which state structures would be created to one day assume full power in a Palestine as a sovereign state.

Kosovo has been under international administration since its liberation. During that period, in parallel, with international assistance, it created self-administration institutions. Then, through an international process, led by the UN special envoy, a proposal for the status of Kosovo emerged and based on this proposal, the political representatives of the people of Kosovo declared Independence. This independence was recognized by many countries, but due to the misuse of the veto right, it was not recognized by the United Nations. The EU was also divided, as five of its 27 member states did not recognize Kosovo. Serbia did not recognize it either. And the non-recognition by Serbia was taken as an excuse by some countries to claim that the declaration of independence was unilateral. Disagreements over Kosovo's Independence continue, Serbia does not recognize it and says that it "will never recognize it". The EU cannot recognize it as a state, as this issue, which also pertains to foreign policy, is in the field where it is decided unanimously by all member states.

On the other hand, more than 150 countries in the world have already recognized the independence of Palestine, even though Palestine does not have the main structures of its own state in all the territory that is considered to belong to that state.      

In practice, Kosovo is a functional state, with its own borders and exercise of power. They even cite it as an example of state formation that Palestine should follow in the future. In formal terms, more states have recognized Palestine than have recognized Kosovo. A look at the list of states that have recognized Kosovo and those that have recognized Palestine proves the hypocrisy of some of them. It proves that recognition is simply a political act. That is why Palestine has been recognized by several states, including European ones, which have not recognized Kosovo. The statement of a Palestinian ambassador, who said that he did not recognize Kosovo because it opened an embassy in Jerusalem, is also hypocritical. If this was really the reason, then they had a full 13 years to do this before Kosovo opened this embassy.

Supporting the creation of a Palestinian state is a right stance. And it is good that there is no difference in this regard even among EU countries. Even those that have not recognized Palestine do not deny that it should be a state. They just want this to be done through the realization of the goal of "two states", that is, Palestine and Israel, as separate states that would live in peace in good neighborliness with each other.

It is interesting that the EU has never said on behalf of the entire EU that Kosovo should be a state. So, it seems that there is more agreement that Palestine should be a state than that Kosovo is already a state. Countries like Germany, Croatia, Austria, Italy and some others that have not recognized Palestine say that they will recognize it under certain circumstances. Countries like Spain, Cyprus or Slovakia do not say that they will recognize Kosovo. Nor does the EU say, for example, that the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia should be concluded with the two-state formula.

Interestingly, Spain was the most active country in the EU in favor of recognizing Palestine, while, on the other hand, it is the most active country in opposing any treatment of Kosovo as a state. Spain's argument was that Kosovo had become independent unilaterally and Serbia had not accepted this. This argument was rejected by the International Court of Justice, which ruled that Kosovo's declaration of independence did not violate international law and did not violate UN Security Council Resolution 1244. This resolution, which Serbia often relies on to oppose Kosovo's independence, did not establish Kosovo's status, but left it open for this to happen through a political process, which did happen and resulted in independence being declared according to an international proposal. Spain, according to the same argument, could not recognize Palestine because Israel does not agree with such recognition.

What is unpleasant about the EU's case, both with Kosovo and Palestine, is that in both cases it shows how deep the divisions are. And these divisions make the EU's credibility on the international stage very fragile.        

These divisions will also be on display before the eyes of the world at the UN General Assembly. The recognition of Palestine by Britain, Canada, Australia and France, at a time when America strongly opposes such a thing, also demonstrated how far the US has distanced itself from its traditional allies.

On the other hand, recognitions from countries like France, Spain, Belgium, Portugal and some other countries will not change anything on the ground. Because Israel will continue with its operations in Gaza, as long as it has the unconditional support of the United States of America. Recognition of the state of Palestine by some European countries will not change this. Only the United States of America can change it. And the United States, in Trump's second term, simply does not care about anyone.
Although the number of states that have recognized Palestine is greater than those that have recognized Kosovo, there is no doubt that Kosovo is in a much better position. Therefore, Kosovo is also the best example of democratic state building.