On July 30, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his intention to recognize an independent Palestinian state with conditions at the UN General Assembly in September. Calling the path to a two-state solution “untenable,” he opened the door to recognition due to Hamas’s terrorism, settlement expansion, and a “rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster” in Gaza.

The announcement came after France and Britain declared similar intentions. Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to declare one unilaterally. But what does it mean to declare a Palestinian state? Does international recognition create a new country?

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