What makes a country?
What makes a country a country? Is it an area code? A post stamp? The recognition of other countries that a place exists?
These questions have been at the forefront of recent efforts by Ireland, Norway and Spain to recognize an independent Palestinian state this week. The move comes amid the Israel-Hamas war, which continues to turn the Palestinian territory into a place of wartime destruction and death.
Legal scholars say a state typically requires four things: a permanent population, a defined territory, a government and independence. Does Palestine have all these? Not quite. Whether Palestine matches these criteria depends on who you ask. Norway and Spain said recognition of Palestine mattered because it could help kickstart a peace process that would lead to two states: Israel and Palestine, living side by side.