Visiting British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Wednesday took the extraordinary step of signing a treaty with the Palestinian Authority that officially recognizes the latter as a sovereign national entity.
While the document itself deals only with cooperation in the film industry, the phrasing identifies it as a “treaty between nations.” Of course, the Palestinian Authority is not a nation. It’s sovereignty is one of the issues up for negotiations, and Hague’s actions would appear to be prejudging the outcome of those negotiations, something the international community often likes to chide Israel for doing.
But that didn’t stop the UK Consulate in Jerusalem from referring to Hague’s visit to Palestinian leaders in Ramallah as “his first visit to Palestine,” as though such a nation-state already exists.