For weeks now, Pedro Sanchez is trying to get several countries to join Spain in its commitment to recognize the Palestinian state. A first step to pacify the region, which, however, faces several obstacles and Israel’s frontal opposition.

International Law establishes in any case a series of requirements to recognize any new State: “There must be a political community that wants to be a State, a border that may be able to control and a population“summarizes Ruth Ferrero, professor of Political Science.

Conditions that pose problems in the case of the Palestinian people, first of all with regard to the question of government, since right now there are various political headswith the Palestinian National Authority ruling in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while Hamas maintains political power in the Gaza Strip.

Regarding territory, the first problem is that in Palestine there is no territorial continuity due to the Israeli occupation. Israel should also dismantle the entire occupation structure built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and also the control over borders and airspace -including that of Gaza- and the management of customs taxes should return to the Palestinian people.

Perhaps the most complicated thing, however, is related to the populationbecause, as Ignacio Álvarez-Ossorio, professor of Arab and Islamic Studies, explains, “The settlers are not going to withdraw overnight Nor are those 300 settlements that Israel has built in the last 50 years of occupation going to be destroyed.” And much less now, with the current Israeli Government and in a context in which “there is not a single political party today in “Israel in favor of the two-state formula.”

Neither Spain nor the European Union, nor even the United States, has the capacity to reverse this situation, which is why the recognition of Palestine as a State It would be something merely symbolic. “It is saying to the Palestinians: you are having a very bad time, we are with you in this moment of difficulty,” summarizes diplomat Jorge Dezcallar. Everything will be in vain as long as its occupying power is not willing to leave this territory.