*France, Others To Follow This Week
*US Envoy: It’s A Stunt, Counterproductive
*It’s Reward For Murderers, Says Israel
*Palestinians Hail Decision
THE United Kingdom (UK), Canada and Australia recognised a Palestinian State on Sunday, September 21, in a move borne out of frustration over the Gaza war and intended to promote a two-state solution, but which is also bound to anger Israel and its main ally, the United States (US).
The decision by the three major Western nations, which have been traditional allies of Israel, aligned them with about 140 other countries also backing Palestinians’ aspiration to forge an independent homeland from the Israeli-occupied territories.
Britain’s decision carried particular symbolism, given its major role in Israel’s creation as a modern nation in the aftermath of World War Two.
“Today, to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution, the United Kingdom (UK) formally recognises the State of Palestine,” said Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.
“The man-made humanitarian crisis in Gaza reaches new depths. The Israeli Government’s relentless and increasing bombardment of Gaza, the offensive of recent weeks, the starvation and devastation are utterly intolerable,” he added.
Other nations, including France, are expected to follow suit this week at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
Starmer has written to Abbas to confirm Britain’s decision, noting that London had backed a Jewish homeland in 1917, while also pledging to protect the rights of non-Jewish communities.
“I reaffirm the United Kingdom’s commitment to a Palestinian State for the Palestinian people, and our enduring support for a two-state solution in which Palestinians and Israelis live side by side in peace and security,” he said in the letter.
Western governments have been under pressure from many in their parties and populations angry at the ever-rising death toll in Gaza, images of starving children and their states’ inability to rein in Israel, even continuing to provide arms.
Londoners voiced mixed reactions on Sunday.
“A whole lot needs to happen and peace needs to come to that region.
“This is the first step in actually acknowledging that those people have a right to have somewhere to call home,” said 56-year-old charity director, Michael Angus.
Announcing his country’s decision, Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, said it would empower those seeking peaceful co-existence and the end of Hamas.
According to him: “This in no way legitimises terrorism, nor is it any reward for it.”
Israel has sharply criticised the step, with some ministers dismissing it as irrelevant, saying it does not change the realities on the ground.
Others have insisted that a Palestinian state can only be achieved through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has dismissed the efforts as a stunt and counterproductive.
Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, this month declared there would never be a Palestinian state.
Following the recognitions announced simultaneously in the three capitals, Israel’s Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said the decision taken was a reward for “murderers,” a reference to the Hamas militant group, whose October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the nearly two-year war.
That assault killed 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s ensuing campaign has killed over 65,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Gazan health authorities, and has spread famine, demolished most buildings and displaced most of the population, in many cases multiple times.
Israeli minister, Ben-Gvir, said he would propose that the cabinet apply sovereignty in another Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, the West Bank, a move that would represent de facto annexation of land seized in a 1967 war.
He also said the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA), which has limited self-rule in the West Bank, should be dismantled.
Mandy Damari, the British mother of released British-Israeli hostage, Emily Damari, told Reuters on Sunday that Starmer was “under a two-state delusion,” given that the Gaza Strip’s government was still Hamas, whose mission was to destroy Israel.
“He is rewarding Hamas for the 7th October barbaric and savage attack on Israel when the hostages are still not back, the war is not over and Hamas are still in power in Gaza.”
Shahin said that Israel had no intention of negotiating, citing Netanyahu’s remarks at a ceremony this month to build a new settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that would cut off northern Palestinian communities from those in the south.
“This recognition is certainly not symbolic. It is a practical, tangible, irreversible step that countries must take if they are invested in preserving the two-state solution,” Shahin said.
Israel’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid also criticised the “unilateral” recognition of a Palestinian state in a post on X, but he also blamed the Netanyahu government, saying it “could have prevented this through professional diplomatic dialogue.”
However, PA President, Mahmoud Abbas, welcomed the move, saying it would help pave the way for the “State of Palestine to live side by side with the State of Israel in security, peace and good neighborliness.”
Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, watched on his phone as Starmer announced Britain’s recognition of a Palestinian State.
At the London headquarters of the Mission, which may now be upgraded to an embassy, there were smiles and embraces.
He told Reuters: “We realise that the recognition will not bring (back) lives that we have lost,” “Because of the lack of this recognition … things have been left to fester all the way to genocide being committed in full view of the world.
“Today is a moment when the UK Prime Minister and the British Government, on behalf of their people, stand and say, ‘We must correct history, we must right the wrongs.”
Palestinian Foreign Minister, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, said countries recognising a Palestinian State were taking an irreversible step that preserved the two-state solution and brought Palestinian independence and sovereignty closer.
“Now is the time. Tomorrow is a historic date we need to build on. It’s not the end,” Shahin told reporters in Ramallah.
“It is a move bringing us closer to sovereignty and independence. It might not end the war tomorrow, but it’s a move forward, which we need to build on and amplify,” she said, referring to Israel’s nearly two-year military campaign in Gaza.
France and Saudi Arabia have led efforts to revive momentum for the two-state solution, with several countries to recognise a Palestinian state this week.
Israeli officials have hardened their positions on settlement construction and West Bank annexation as international momentum for Palestinian statehood has grown.
Israel has faced growing diplomatic isolation this year, as many of its closest allies, with the exception of the US, have condemned its assault on Gaza. Some have sanctioned Israeli ministers for inciting violence against Palestinians.
A UN Commission of Inquiry last week said that it had concluded, opens new tab that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, a finding also reached by a scholars’ association, Amnesty International, and two leading human rights groups in Israel.
British troops captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire in 1917, and in 1922, the League of Nations awarded Britain an international mandate to administer Palestine during the post-war deal, making that redrew the map of the Middle East.
