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Speaker 1: So the big question facing us today is where the

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Speaker 1: New Zealand should join other nations and recognizing a Palestinian state, now,

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Speaker 1: this is a much bigger question than it seems. For

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Speaker 1: some it's easy labor and the Greens do it reflexively

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Speaker 1: without thinking. I think, call the Palestinians a state, and

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Speaker 1: there you go. You've got a legal foothold to fight

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Speaker 1: for some land. I guess is the way they're thinking.

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Speaker 1: And in a way, we've already done that by publicly

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Speaker 1: calling for a two state solution to the conflict in

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Speaker 1: the Middle East. But it's easy to confuse nations and states,

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Speaker 1: and the definition of state has many layers. A state

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Speaker 1: is a political and legal entity with sovereignty over a

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Speaker 1: defined territory and a define population, and its focus is governance,

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Speaker 1: law and authority. And we know in the Palestinian case

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Speaker 1: many of those provisos are missing. Obviously there's no defined territory,

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Speaker 1: or maybe there was, but it's been pretty much destroyed.

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Speaker 1: There is no authority that is recognized by most, with

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Speaker 1: Hamas having lost the mandate in the eyes of many

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Speaker 1: countries after war. They did that October, and the Palestinian

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Speaker 1: authority long since discredited. A state can easily be confused

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Speaker 1: with a nation, which is a group of people who

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Speaker 1: share common cultural elements like language or ethnicity, in history

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Speaker 1: or traditions, So you can say Maori are a nation

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Speaker 1: of people with a New Zealand Palestinians can be a nation.

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Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean land, and that's what you need

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Speaker 1: to be a state, and that is where the rubbert

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Speaker 1: really hits the road. It is hard to recognize a

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Speaker 1: Palestinian state when there is no land for it to belong. In.

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Speaker 1: Declaring a Palestinian state right now, though, would therefore be

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Speaker 1: a piece of global virtue, signaling a stance with little

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Speaker 1: or no practical application other than political pressure on Israel.

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Speaker 1: And so New Zealand and its government has now been

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Speaker 1: accused of kicking the can down the road because it's

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Speaker 1: going to consider its position over the next month. And

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Speaker 1: to be fair, we are kicking the can down the road.

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Speaker 1: But this is a delicate move which, as I've said already,

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Speaker 1: on the outside, seems so easy to many, but it's

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Speaker 1: still full of pitfalls and it seems to be putting

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Speaker 1: the horse before the cart when we don't know where

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Speaker 1: the state would be in the world. And here's the

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Speaker 1: big thing. Would declaring a state actually put any food

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Speaker 1: in Palestinian bellies? For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,

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Speaker 1: Listen live to news talks it'd be from five am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.