Professor emeritus, TFF Associate
Oxford (Special to Informed Comment; Feature)
The dam has burst. Netanyahu and his far-right regime have gone too far. Public pressure on politicians in Europe and many other countries has become irresistible, forcing them to change course. Most countries, 147 of the UN’s 193 members, have formally recognized a Palestinian state, and last week, France pledged to do so at the UN meeting in September. Fourteen nations, including Canada, New Zealand and Australia, join France in a push to recognize a Palestinian state.
The British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, one of Israel’s staunchest allies who even refused to condemn the Israeli blockade of food, water, medicine and fuel to the Palestinians after the terrible events of 7th October, has buckled under the pressure of public opinion. More than 255 MPs of all parties signed a letter addressed to the prime minister in which they urged him to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state. The list included more than a third of the cabinet, including the deputy prime minister, the foreign secretary, the home secretary and many other senior ministers.
The result was an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday 29th July and the dramatic announcement that the UK will recognize Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September. On the same day, as he returned from his meetings with President Donald Trump in Scotland, in a speech at 10 Downing Street, Starmer said Britain will recognize a Palestinian state in September. He said the recognition will happen unless the Israeli government takes “substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza”, including a ceasefire and a commitment to a long-term peace process.
Although the statement is weak, hedged with certain conditions and far too late, it is better late than never. For a country that is mainly responsible for the creation of the state of Israel with the Balfour Declaration, at a time when it had no jurisdiction over Palestine and when the world was decades away from the Holocaust, the promise to recognize Palestine is a very significant and welcome move.
Shortly after Starmer announced his plan in London, his foreign secretary did the same before the UN. British Foreign Secretary David Lamy said: “Let me be clear: the Netanyahu government’s rejection of the two-state solution is wrong. It’s wrong morally and it’s wrong strategically. And so it is with the hand of history on our shoulders that his majesty’s government therefore intends to recognize the state of Palestine when the UN General Assembly gathers in September.”
The global revulsion at the Israeli genocide, and especially the photos of hundreds of emaciated babies and children dying of starvation in front of the eyes of their helpless mothers, brought to our television sets daily, has forced even the hardest politicians to buckle under the pressure.
On 24th July, in a post on X, French President Emmanuel Macron said France would officially recognize a Palestinian state in September.
Continue reading the original at Juan Cole’s “Informed Comment”:
Britain, which created the Israeli-Palestinian Mess, will Finally Recognize Palestinian State
