A map showing countries that recognize a Palestinian state and those that plan to

The map above shows countries that recognize - or plan to recognize - a Palestinian State. (AP Graphic)

France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Malta announced plans this week to recognize a Palestinian state that does not yet exist.

Nearly 150 of the 193 members of the United Nations have already recognized Palestinian statehood, most of them decades ago. The United States and other Western powers have held off, saying Palestinian statehood should be part of a final agreement resolving the decades-old Middle East conflict.

This week’s announcements were largely symbolic and rejected by Israel, whose current government is opposed to Palestinian statehood.

A two-state solution in which a state of Palestine would be created alongside Israel in most or all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem — territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war — is still seen internationally as the only way to resolve the conflict.

The Associated Press