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. He wrote: “The urgent need today is for the war in Gaza to end and for the civilian population to be rescued. Peace is possible. We need an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.”
In his post on X, Macron wrote: “True to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine… Finally, we must build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability, and ensure that by accepting its demilitarization and fully recognizing Israel, it contributes to the security of all in the Middle East. There is no alternative.”
The State Department strongly criticized French recognition of a Palestinian state. In a post on X on 24 July, Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote: “The United States strongly rejects Emmanuel Macron’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN general assembly. This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.”
It is interesting that on his way back from Scotland, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, President Trump was asked about Keir Starmer’s announcement. His response was non-committal and more measured than Rubio’s outright denunciation of the French decision. Trump said that he “never discussed” the issue of Palestinian statehood with Starmer, except for brief remarks during the pair’s impromptu Q&A on Monday. “We [the US] have no view on that,” Trump said. “We’re going to get a lot of money to the area so they get some food.” However, he went on to say a “case could be made” that recognition of a Palestinian state is akin to “rewarding Hamas”. “And I don’t think they should be rewarded,” he added.
French and British recognition of Palestine is not a reward for Hamas atrocities, as they stress that Hamas should play no part in the future administration of Gaza. However, refusing to recognize a Palestinian state would be a reward for the Israeli regime’s continued occupation of Palestinian lands, expanding its illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, its violation of Palestinian rights, keeping them stateless under a most brutal occupation, and above all the horrendous genocide that has been going on in Gaza for the past 21 months.
UN General Assembly resolution 181, adopted on 29 November 1947, which recognized the state of Israel, recommended the partition of Mandatory Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states, with Jerusalem placed under a special international regime. In other words, the creation of Israel was also dependent on the recognition of a Palestinian state.
Resolution 242, adopted after the Six-Day War, called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories occupied during the conflict and affirmed the right of both states to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries. Resolution 2334, adopted in 2016, reaffirmed the illegality of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories and called for their cessation. Ever since the signing of the Oslo Accords, the United States has recognized the necessity of a two-state solution, with a Palestinian state established on the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital.
All Western countries have paid lip service to the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state. The state of Israel has been established, while the establishment of a Palestinian state has been forgotten and delayed for far too long. Ever since coming to power, Netanyahu has openly campaigned against a two-state solution and has said that he wants to annex the West Bank and Gaza to Israel.
For the past 21 months, the Israeli regime led by Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right, extreme Zionist ministers has been engaged in the worst genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and to a lesser extent in the West Bank, since the Holocaust. The world has strongly condemned the atrocities committed by HAMAS, Islamic Jihad and others on 7th October. However, Israel’s response to those atrocities has been completely disproportionate and has violated many humanitarian laws. Since the 7th October attacks, Israeli settlers and the army have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians and have destroyed or occupied their properties. More than 1,400 starving people have been killed at the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation while trying to receive meagre amounts of food.
As early as 26 January 2024, the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial authority in the world, in its provisional ruling, described Israel’s actions in Gaza to that point as “plausible genocide” and ordered Israel to stop those operations. In April 2024, some 600 British lawyers, including four former Supreme Court justices, signed a letter to the UK Prime Minister, asking him to stop arms sales to Israel and referring to “a plausible risk of genocide”.
In a significant advisory opinion in July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s continued presence in the occupied territories as unlawful and called for an end to the occupation and settlement activities. The Court also stated that Israel should make reparations for damages caused by its actions.
On 21 November 2024, the International Criminal Court indicted Benjamin Netanyahu and his then-defense minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and issued arrest warrants for them. Instead of arresting those indicted individuals, the United States has cut off funding to the ICC and sanctioned some of its judges.
So far, at least 60,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed and tens of thousands wounded and maimed. Some experts and reputable organizations, including the Lancet, have stated that these figures are gross underestimates and the number of dead exceeds 200,000.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said in an alert that “conflict and displacement have intensified, and access to food and other essential items and services has plummeted to unprecedented levels”, adding that “mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths.”
File photo of UK Parliament building by Yoksel 🌿 Zok on Unsplash
During the past 21 months, Israeli forces have destroyed at least 160,000 buildings, homes, schools, universities, mosques, hospitals, farms, etc. Israel does not allow foreign journalists to visit Gaza to see what has happened with their own eyes, but Satellite imagery confirms that Gaza has been practically annihilated. Israel has deliberately made Gaza uninhabitable with threats of the ethnic cleansing of all its inhabitants.
Countries representing over 90 per cent of the world population have formally recognized a Palestinian state. In a vote at the General Assembly meeting on the right of Palestinian people to self-determination on Dec 19, 2023, 172 countries, including all European countries, voted in favor and only Israel, Micronesia, Nauru and the United States voted against. There is only one major obstacle on the path of establishing a Palestinian state: a US veto at the Security Council. For how long will US leaders wish to turn their backs on the vast majority of the people of the world and only align themselves with three small countries? Freedom, independence and self-determination are some of the US’s cherished principles. It should not violate its principles in support of an apartheid, occupying regime.
Maybe President Trump’s relatively moderate statement, saying that he has no view on the establishment of a Palestinian state, can remove that last obstacle and allow the oppressed Palestinians who have been kept under a brutal occupation for more than 70 years to finally be allowed to live in freedom and dignity in a Palestinian state next to Israel.
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