What is the importance of Palestine when debating Sovereignty?

What and were is Palestine?
First off we need to have a basic understanding of what Palestine actually is. Palestine is a region in Western Asia between the Mediterranean sea and the Jordan river. At the this current moment it is made up of Israel and Palestine the state. Palestine is currently one of a few observer states to the UN. This meaning that it does not have the rights of UN nations such as voting. However on September 14th 2015 136 UN members recognized Palestine as a state. Palestine currently has a population of around 4.4 million spread across the two areas of land in which it claims. I say claims as Israel will argue that Palestine does not own any area and Egypt as well will try and claim the Gaza strip. The Gaza strip is one of the areas of land in which Palestine claims along with the so called west bank.

Were has Palestine's State Sovereignty gone?  
As we know from the previous blog state sovereignty was originally laid out in the Peace Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. A state is therefore able to control fully what goes on inside their borders due to internal sovereignty. However within Palestine this internal sovereignty has been eroded in the last 65 years or so up until today were they are only a tiny state. As you can see from the image above it was once a large state in 1946 however in 1947 the UN voted in favor of splitting up Palestine into two states, the other being Israel. Surprisingly both the U.S and the Soviet Union voted in favor. The Soviets especially voted in order to reduce British Influence in the region. Then in 1967 Israel sent troops into the West Bank and the Gaza strip in order to finally get rid of Palestine. However they were really doing this in order to be recognized as a state from the Arab nations around them such as Egypt. During the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza strip 4.6 million Palestine's left and became refugees in states such as Syria and Jordan. Israel occupied these two regions up until 2005 when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to take troops out of the two regions and peace talks began. However Israel only gave little bits of the West Bank back and the whole of the Gaza strip as you can see from the fourth image above. Although Palestine owns the Gaza strip and bits of the West bank its internal sovereignty is all but eroded. This is because Israel has a blockade around Gaza which controls who goes in and out. You can also argue that Palestine's external sovereignty has gone also as, when Hamas took over in 2005 they stated that they will not recognize Israel as a state and wants Palestinians to return to their rightful homes (Israel). However as soon as this was stated Israel blockade the Gaza strip. This then shows Palestine are viewed as a weak state and other nations i.e Israel are not afraid to perform actions that may cause a conflict.

Palestine's importance when debating Sovereignty
A state is defined in four ways; 1.Defined territory 2. Permanent Population 3. Effective Government 4. Capacity to enter relations with other states. Palestine has just two of these and it can be argued that they may have three. They certainly have a permanent population and as small as it is a defined territory. However both regions are controlled by two different bodies. Gaza by Hamas (which a lot of states consider a terrorist organization) and then the West Bank by the Palestine Liberation Organization Although it could be argued but both these rune their region relatively well under the circumstances. Then finally do they have the capacity to enter into relations with other counties? Well after 2011 when Palestine were accepted as a non-member observer state to the UN and 132 states now recognizing Palestine as a nation state. It can now be said that Palestine does have some external sovereignty due to states now noticing them. However the major factor in this argument is that Israels external sovereignty is stronger than Palestine's internal sovereignty this then shows that other states do not view Palestine as one with its own sovereignty so they can do what they would like to and it will not effect Palestine as they cant react in the same way other states can. This is only highlighted by the blockade of Gaza by Israel. So when looking at the importance of Palestine when debating sovereignty you could argue that they have hardly any and that it is all taken away by an external state. In this modern era should this really be happening? I think not.