Palestine’s statehood remains one of the most controversial issues of contemporary international law and international relations. Despite the position presented in resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly as well as Palestine having joined many important international agreements under the same conditions as universally recognised states, some states still express doubts about the existence of the State of Palestine. The aim of this article is to show that Palestine has met the criteria of statehood and that states which have not so far recognised it are guilty of belated recognition. The first part of the article will briefly discuss the mutual relations between the institution of recognition and the phenomenon of statehood. Then the author shall characterise Palestine’s presence in the United Nations. The next part will be dedicated to discussing how Palestine meets the criteria of statehood. Following that the author shall present examples of bilateral relations between Palestine and the countries that do not recognise it, which shall be later used to elaborate on the definitions of belated recognition and implicit recognition. The last part has been devoted to issues related to belated recognition.