A day after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will recognize Palestine as a state, the debate has generated considerable headway in the United Kingdom, where British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is under pressure from senior members of his own government, to declare that the United Kingdom recognizes a Palestinian state, according to several leading international publications.
The UK premier said Thursday that “statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people,” in a statement decrying the humanitarian situation in Gaza and calling for a ceasefire, but he has not committed to a timeframe for recognizing a Palestinian state.
Over 220 UK MPs have urged PM Keir Starmer to formally recognise Palestine as a state. Amid rising global support including France’s decision to act in September, Starmer says recognition must be part of a wider peace plan leading to a two-state solution. As Gaza’s humanitarian crisis worsens, pressure mounts on the UK to act.
The French government's declaration is perhaps the most symbolic move that is likely to add more diplomatic pressure on Israel as the war and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip rage. France is now the biggest Western power to recognize Palestine.
Successive British governments have said they will formally recognize a Palestinian state at the right time, without ever setting a timetable or specifying the conditions for it to happen.
“We want Palestinian statehood, we desire it, and we want to make sure the circumstances can exist where that kind of long-term political solution can have the space to evolve,” British science and technology minister Peter Kyle told Sky News on Friday.
“But right now, today, we’ve got to focus on what will ease the suffering, and it is extreme, unwarranted suffering in Gaza that has to be the priority for us today.”
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy made similar remarks on Tuesday, telling the BBC: “We don’t just want to recognize symbolically, we want to recognize as a way of getting to the two states that sadly many are trying to thwart at this point in time.” London Mayor Sadiq Khan also called on Wednesday for the government to move forward with statehood recognition.
Overall, at least 142 countries now recognize or plan to recognize Palestinian statehood, according to an AFP tally.
Israel has rejected calls to recognize a state of Palestine, arguing that this would endanger Israel’s security and that recognizing one in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught that started the ongoing war would reward the terror group for its bloody rampage, even while it still holds hostages.
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