Palestine’s Post-2012 External Statehood Performativity: Diplomatic Agency and International Discourse

Abstract

The 2012 UN ‘upgrade’ from ‘non-state observer entity’ to ‘non-member observer state’ conferred validation to Palestinian agency and transformed the mannerism, practices and language of Palestinian practitioners in the international context. At the same time, the international discourse and its constituent policies and politics have conditionalised or, at times, relativised Palestinian external statehood. Aiming to put that stark contrast into perspective, this article draws on the literatures of contested statehood and statehood performativity in order to analyse the internationalisation of Palestinian ‘agency’ in conjunction with the counteractive effect of international discourse on the process of internationalisation. In particular, it discusses how Palestine utilises diplomacy to manifest external sovereignty, but also how international discourse treats Palestine as a subordinate of the international system, contributing to the gradual ‘unmaking’ of its external statehood. The article concludes by presenting a diplomatic manoeuvre devised to keep Palestinian external statehood afloat in the midst of statehood contestation and foreign occupation.