Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Nadeem Badshah at The Guardian reports that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to recognize a Palestinian state today, Sunday.
Spain, Norway and Ireland took this step in May 2024 when Israel disregarded the International Court of Justice’s preliminary injunction against continuing actions in Gaza that were plausibly genocidal, especially the invasion of Rafah, then the last functioning city in the Strip. Britain will be joined in this act of recognition ahead of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York by France, Australia, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and San Marino. Belgium and Portugal will extend this recognition in phases.
Starmer is an uncritical supporter of Israel and represents the Labour Party’s right wing. He had wanted to avoid taking this step, and kept asking the Netanyahu government to give him an off ramp — to let into Gaza sufficient food and medical aid, to pledge a ceasefire, and to work toward a two-state solution. The Netanyahu government ignored him and continued their brutal campaign against the civilian population.
Starmer is getting pressure from other European leaders, especially Emmanuel Macron in France and Pedro Sánchez in Spain, to recognize Palestine. He is also, however, being pushed hard by the Labour rank and file. The most recent Ipsos opinion poll shows overwhelming concern about the plight of Palestinian civilians and significant support for Palestinian statehood among the British public, which is even more of an issue for Labour voters.
Nearly half of Britons (46%) agree that all United Nations members should recognize Palestine, and only 12% disagree, according to the poll. We may conclude that the overwhelming majority of Labour voters support this move. Some 66% of UK residents are concerned about the impact of the conflict on Palestinian civilians. Most of those who do not wholeheartedly support British recognition appear to refrain from doing so because they think it won’t make a practical difference to the war, not because the oppose the step. So it seems to me that Ipsos is saying that there is overwhelming support in Britain for the government doing something of this nature, and indeed, for the government to do much more.
A much greater proportion (19%) want the government to support the Palestinians than want the government to support Israel (only 7%). But a third want the government just to remain neutral.
A majority of Britons believe Israel has gone too far, but two-thirds of Labour voters hold this view and 73% of Liberal Democrats. Even among Conservatives, 51% agree. And nearly 40% of the extreme-right white nationalist Reform voters think Israel has gone too far, which strikes me as remarkable since they are more often of the “kill them all” school of international relations.
Starmer’s recognition of Palestine finally makes good on a British government promise in the 1939 MacDonald White Paper. Here are some quotes from that document, which promised a Palestinian state by 1949. Palestine was a Mandate — a kind of colony mandated by the League of Nations, as were Syria, Iraq, Togo, Tanganyika and some others. Syria, Iraq, Togo and Tanzania are all independent countries now. Palestinians are scattered or living under an ever more brutal Israeli military occupation.
“Grudging Recognition,” Digital, ChatGPT, 2025
In 1939 when the White Paper was issued there were likely over 400,000 Jewish settlers, many having fled Fascism in Europe, and over a million Muslim and Christian Palestinians. Here are some quotes from the White Paper that make glaringly obvious the monstrous betrayal of the Palestinians committed by Britain and the other Great Powers:
“His Majesty’s Government believe that the framers of the Mandate in which the Balfour Declaration was embodied could not have intended that Palestine should be converted into a Jewish State against the will of the Arab population of the country . . .”
“His Majesty’s Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State. They would indeed regard it as contrary to their obligations to the Arabs under the Mandate, as well as to the assurances which have been given to the Arab people in the past, that the Arab population of Palestine should be made the subjects of a Jewish State against their will . . .” [Emph. added.]
“Arab suspects lined up against a wall after a dawn search in Marus, Palestine,” Imperial War Museum, London.. Fair Dealing exception, for use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
“His Majesty’s Government are charged as the Mandatory authority “to secure the development of self governing institutions” in Palestine . . . It is proper that the people of the country should as early as possible enjoy the rights of self-government which are exercised by the people of neighbouring countries. His Majesty’s Government are unable at present to foresee the exact constitutional forms which government in Palestine will eventually take, but their objective is self government, and they desire to see established ultimately an independent Palestine State. It should be a State in which the two peoples in Palestine, Arabs and Jews, share authority in government in such a way that the essential interests of each are shared . . .”
“The objective of His Majesty’s Government is the establishment within 10 years [by 1949] of an independent Palestine State in such treaty relations with the United Kingdom as will provide satisfactorily for the commercial and strategic requirements of both countries in the future. The proposal for the establishment of the independent State would involve consultation with the Council of the League of Nations with a view to the termination of the Mandate.”
Starmer’s recognition of a Palestinian state is coming not in 1949 but in 2025, 76 years behind schedule. It is worse, since the White Paper foresaw a functioning Palestinian state by 1949, and it is unclear when or if we will have such a thing.
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