RAMALLAH (AFP) — Crowds of people rallied in the West Bank on Tuesday, waving flags and holding posters of Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas to celebrate the wave of recognition by Western powers of a Palestinian state.
Nationalist slogans blared from loudspeakers across the central square in the city of Ramallah, where a crowd of more than 100 clutched Palestinian and European flags alongside signs reading “Stop the genocide.”
High-ranking officials from Abbas’s political movement, Fatah, and the Palestinian Authority — which holds limited control in the West Bank — shook hands and smiled.
“This recognition is a first step in a process that we hope will continue,” Jibril Rajoub, secretary-general of Fatah’s central committee, told AFP.
“It is the result of more than a century of resistance and determination by our people.”
Rajoub said he had felt moved listening to the speeches made at the UN General Assembly in New York the night before. “We must learn from the past and unite the people,” he said.
Maysoon Mahmud, 39, who is also a Fatah member, said: “We came here today to thank the countries that have recognized Palestine, but also to ask them to continue to support us in stopping the war.”
“It is time for the world to take responsibility,” she added.
Further north in Tulkarem, dozens more gathered, holding the flags of countries that now recognize a Palestinian state.
A majority of European powers now recognize a Palestinian state, following official declarations on Monday by France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and others, after nearly two years of war in Gaza sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion and massacre in southern Israel, and soaring violence in the West Bank.
A day earlier, Britain, Australia, Canada and Portugal also took the step.
But many Palestinians interviewed by AFP expressed ambivalence at the move due to the bitter reality of the situation on the ground.
Roula Ghaneb, an academic from Tulkarem, stood impassively in the middle of the Ramallah rally, holding a photo of her 20-year-old son, Yazan.
“He was arrested at our home eight months ago,” she said, adding that he was being held in poor conditions.
Ghaneb said she wanted an end to all violence, insisting: “We don’t want words, we want action.”
Jamila Abdul, a resident of a village between Jerusalem and Ramallah, charged: “Palestine is being exterminated today in Gaza and the West Bank in various ways.”
Hardline Israeli government ministers have made little secret of their desire to annex the West Bank, which Israel has controlled since capturing it from Jordan 1967, and where Israeli settlements are expanding.
The diplomatic push also comes as Israel is intensifying its military offensive in Gaza City, after nearly two years of war triggered by Hamas’s deadly attack.
“If they want to recognize something, they must recognize the genocide that is taking place today, put an end to these atrocities and punish Israel for these crimes,” said Abdul.
Israel firmly denies allegations that it is carrying out genocide in Gaza. It has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities as it battles to destroy Hamas, and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Related: Gaza genocide claims are based on skewed facts, sometimes deliberately, says study author
“If we had wanted to commit genocide, it would have taken exactly one afternoon,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month.