The world's eyes will be on New Zealand over the next month as it weighs up a decision to recognise Palestinian statehood. 

Australia's declared it will recognise Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September. 

It's following suit behind other Western countries including the UK, France, and Canada. 

Massey University defence and security studies professor John Battersby told Andrew Dickens there's widespread public opinion that something has to be done to pull Israel's action back. 

He says there's internal dissent within Israel itself over the effect of its actions, so any move in this direction may be able to temper that. 

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