Why does Palestine have an Olympic team?
What is required of a country to field an olympic team? What if the Quebec separatists wanted to field a squad? or The US Confederacy?
The IOC doens’t have a straight answer.
Well, Palestine does have territory (Gaza and the West Bank), and it does have a sort of national government. Plus, it’s probably politics: the Arab countries, and Iran, would not be there is Israel was in the comptition and Palestine was not. I think that, in cases of doubt like this, it is sensible to inclusive rather than exclusive.
If Puerto Rico is there why not Palestine?
Because the Palestinian Olympic Committee is reognized by the IOC. I don’t think there are general guidelines about which a territory has to fulfil to qualify - the IOC will check any individual case and decide whether or not recognise the particular committee.
Another interesting example for this is Taiwan, participating in the 2004 Olympics as “Chinese Taipei” and banned from using its national symbols such as flag and anthem.