The US is now the only permanent member of the UN Security Council not to recognise Palestinian statehood. The US ambassador to the UN calls state recognition a “performance”. Former New Zealand diplomat Colin Keating disagrees: “The reality is that recognition is an incremental process [in] which collectively the international community begins to move the status quo.”

This month, many of New Zealand’s closest allies began that process. On Saturday, Winston Peters announced, “We are not ready to make that gesture.”

Made with the support of NZ On Air.