So could someone explain what it means for Palestine to be “recognized as a state” by some proportion or other of the UN? If the UN says something is or isn’t a state, what does that mean for it?
It’s not the UN saying it’s a state. Palestine has been an observer at the UN for a while, I believe
If a country doesn’t recognise another country, they won’t do diplomacy with it, will probably recognise some other country’s claim on that land (which is bad for the country that wants to be recognised, obviously), and basically won’t treat it as an independent nation
If a country doesn’t recognise another country, they won’t do diplomacy with it
This isn’t necessarily true. See, for example, how loads of countries don’t officially recognise Taiwan for the sake of keeping China happy, but do maintain an unusually well-staffed “trade office” in Taipei and accept Taiwanese passports
Nope. Most UN members have diplomatic relations with Palestine. Even the ones that do not recognize it as a country do. Mostly it is some small countries, which do not, but I fully get that say Samoa does not care that much about Palestine. Wikipedia has a good list of it.
So could someone explain what it means for Palestine to be “recognized as a state” by some proportion or other of the UN? If the UN says something is or isn’t a state, what does that mean for it?
It’s not the UN saying it’s a state. Palestine has been an observer at the UN for a while, I believe
If a country doesn’t recognise another country, they won’t do diplomacy with it, will probably recognise some other country’s claim on that land (which is bad for the country that wants to be recognised, obviously), and basically won’t treat it as an independent nation
This isn’t necessarily true. See, for example, how loads of countries don’t officially recognise Taiwan for the sake of keeping China happy, but do maintain an unusually well-staffed “trade office” in Taipei and accept Taiwanese passports
Isn’t that more like de facto recognisation then? If you’re accepting passports it’s implicitly assumed that you’re treating it as a sovereign nation
Nope. Most UN members have diplomatic relations with Palestine. Even the ones that do not recognize it as a country do. Mostly it is some small countries, which do not, but I fully get that say Samoa does not care that much about Palestine. Wikipedia has a good list of it.