These moves are driven by a range of motivations: frustration with Israel, domestic political pressure, and outrage over images of starving Palestinians. Whatever the reason, Palestinians have welcomed the announcements as a boost for their cause. The Israeli government, however, has rejected the calls, describing them as tantamount to rewarding terrorism.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump appears increasingly frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—particularly over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which Netanyahu denies but which has visibly disturbed Trump. The U.S. president is seeking regional peace, as well as accolades—namely a Nobel Peace Prize—for brokering it. He also wants Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel, building on the Abraham Accords he helped establish between Israel and several Arab states during his first term. But Riyadh has remained firm: normalization cannot happen without an irreversible path toward a Palestinian state.

The recent moves by U.S. allies—France, Britain, and Canada—though largely symbolic, have left Washington increasingly isolated in its staunch backing of Israel.

Palestinian statehood could help bring an end to a war that has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza since Hamas’s brutal October 7 attack, which killed around 1,200 people in Israel nearly two years ago. It could also pave the way for the return of hostages still held in Gaza. But one of the toughest challenges remains envisioning what such a state would look like—because a modern Palestinian state has never existed.

When Israel was founded in the aftermath of World War II, it quickly gained international recognition. That same period is remembered by Palestinians as al-Naqba, or “the catastrophe”—the moment when hundreds of thousands fled or were forced from their homes. Since then, Israel has expanded, most notably during the Six-Day War in 1967, when it defeated a coalition of Arab states and gained control of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. Palestinian territory, meanwhile, has steadily shrunk and become increasingly fragmented.

The closest the world has come to defining what a Palestinian state might look like was during the peace process of the 1990s, known as the Oslo Accords. Broadly speaking, the Palestinian state envisioned under Oslo—agreed upon by both Palestinian and Israeli negotiators—would be based on Israel’s 1967 borders. The outline included land swaps: small territorial exchanges in return for the dismantling of certain Israeli settlements, negotiated through mutual agreement. (CNN)