Canada and Australia have also acknowledged the decision, which comes as Israel continues to wreak havoc in Gaza
More than 100 years after the Balfour Declaration supported “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” and 77 years after Israel was established in the British Mandate of Palestine, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that the UK will formally recognize a Palestinian state. “In the face of the growing horror in the Middle East, we are acting to keep alive the possibility of peace and of a two-state solution,” Starmer said in a video statement Sunday.
In July, the UK government declared that it would abandon its long-standing policy of delaying recognition until a purportedly decisive moment unless Israel halts its genocide in Gaza, pledges to a sustainable peace process that leads to a two-state solution, and permits more aid to enter the enclave.
However, while the Israeli military continues to deliberately destroy Gaza City in order to seize it, while also starving and uprooting the famine-stricken population of the enclave, the already grave situation in Gaza has only gotten worse over the past few weeks.
Israel is moving on with plans to annex the Palestinian territories and “bury” the idea of a contiguous Palestinian state with occupied East Jerusalem as its capital. Israeli soldiers and settlers are conducting daily raids and attacks throughout the occupied West Bank.
Two days before the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which will focus on Palestinian sovereignty following decades of Israeli oppression and apartheid, Canada and Australia both formally recognized Palestinian statehood.
Starmer has emphasized that Hamas will not play a part in Palestine’s future and promised to take additional steps in the upcoming weeks to penalize key members of the organization’s leadership.
He also emphasized that Hamas, which he characterized as a “brutal terrorist organization that wants to see Israel destroyed,” would not be emboldened by the decision to recognize a Palestinian state.
The precise antithesis of their vile vision is a call for a true two-state solution,” Starmer stated.
