Japan’s FM pledged not to recognize Palestinian state at UN, Israel says

Japan has decided not to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly next week, Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced Friday.

Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya notified Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar over the phone of the country’s decision, according to a readout from Sa’ar’s office.

“The Japanese foreign minister informed Minister Sa’ar during the conversation that Japan has decided not to support recognition of a Palestinian state at the upcoming UN General Assembly,” the readout said.

The call was held preceding a UN summit co-chaired by Riyadh and Paris and set to take place on September 22 in New York, in which Britain, France, Canada, Australia and Belgium are expected to formally recognize a Palestinian state, although reports have suggested that the United Kingdom could announce recognition as early as Friday.

During the call, which followed a conversation between the ministers two weeks prior, Sa’ar “presented Israel’s position” on its strike against Hamas leaders in Qatar last week.

The top diplomats also discussed the IDF’s operation in Gaza City, the military’s recent arrest of a terror cell producing rockets to attack Israeli targets, and other issues, Sa’ar’s office added.

There was no immediate Japanese readout of the call or confirmation of the decision not to recognize a Palestinian state.

Earlier this week, the Asahi newspaper cited unnamed government sources as saying that Japan will not recognize a Palestinian state for now, likely to maintain relations with the United States and to avoid a hardening of Israel’s attitude.

Israel has called the planned recognition of a Palestinian state a “prize for terror,” and last week rejected a non-binding UN declaration outlining “tangible, time-bound and irreversible steps” toward a two-state solution, without the involvement of Hamas.

“The only beneficiary is Hamas… When terrorists are the ones cheering, you are not advancing peace; you are advancing terror,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said. The Foreign Ministry similarly called it a “disgrace.”

Around three-quarters of the 193 UN member states recognize the Palestinian state proclaimed in 1988 by the exiled Palestinian leadership.

However, after two years of war — sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre — that have ravaged the Gaza Strip, in addition to expanded Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the stated desire by Israeli officials to annex the territory, fears have been growing that the establishment of an independent Palestinian state will soon become impossible.

“We are going to fulfill our promise that there will be no Palestinian state,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed earlier this month.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, may be prevented from visiting New York for the UN summit after US authorities said they would deny him a visa.