Palestine recognition must come with action: to save lives, States must stop Israel’s crimes and ensure Palestinian agency – Statement by independent NGOs and civil society organizations

2nd October 2025.

Most countries recognize Palestinian statehood, yet Israel’s international law violations are accelerating, with near-total impunity, causing mass displacement, widespread death, and an escalating humanitarian crisis throughout the occupied Palestinian territory. For real impact and to avoid complicity, States must turn their expressions of solidarity into concrete, life-saving action, and any plans for a way forward must place Palestinians as the main architects of their own future.

Statehood recognition is an important, welcome step in the realization of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. It cannot remain symbolic, or be treated as a reward. Importantly, it doesn’t absolve Member States of their legal and moral obligations to put an end to the Israeli occupation in the occupied Palestinian territory (Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem) – which the International Court of Justice has determined to be illegal and in violation of Palestinians’ right to self-determination – and to stop what the UN Commision of Inquiry has determined to be a genocide carried out by Israel in Gaza.

The escalating humanitarian crisis driven by these actions is widely known and documented. Just in the past two years, Israeli eviction orders, demolitions, blockages, arbitrary arrests and direct attacks on people, have triggered the largest forced displacement in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the start of the occupation in 1967. The largest land theft in three decades was officially approved last year, and violence by settlers is at an all-time high. In Gaza, Israeli authorities have been carrying out a deadly military operation that has killed or injured over 136,000 people, forced 2 million people to flee several times, and destroyed 90% of the buildings. Throughout Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israeli forces have attacked health facilities close to 1,650 times. They have restricted free movement – through military checkpoints, gates, barriers, corridors and no-go zones – with devastating consequences on communities’ ability to access livelihoods, medical care, education and other vital services.

World leaders cannot claim ignorance. Even as 4 in 5 countries globally recognize the State of Palestine, the Israeli parliament recently approved a motion to completely annex the West Bank including East Jerusalem, where 3.3 million Palestinians live, and Israeli officials have reiterated their intention to pursue “complete sovereignty” over the West Bank, stating that “there is no Palestinian people and no Palestinian State” and that “the place belongs to [Israelis]”. Similar intentions have been openly declared for all of Gaza.

Read the full statement on Relief Web here: Palestine recognition must come with action: to save lives, States must stop Israel’s crimes and ensure Palestinian agency – Statement by independent NGOs and civil society organizations – occupied Palestinian territory | ReliefWeb