The UK will recognise Palestinian statehood in September ahead of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Keir Starmer now says – before listing some conditions for this to happen.
According to a written handout of the cabinet meeting he held earlier, Starmer said this would happen "unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, reaches a ceasefire, makes clear there will be no annexation in the West Bank, and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a Two State Solution".
He also reiterated that there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas and that the UK's demands on Hamas remain – that they must release all the hostages, sign up to a ceasefire, accept that they will play no role in the government of Gaza, and disarm.
Starmer committed to make an assessment ahead of UNGA on how far the parties have met these steps before making a final decision, ensuring that no one side will have a veto, the statement says.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cdrkj810plvt?post=asset%3A38fbf7e7-f8da-407e-b6a3-2a1c59914cfb#post
Posted by L_o_n_g_b_o_i
19 comments
Imagine your future depends on the actions of a foreign country. What a joke. A majority of the world’s nations already recognize Palestine and that didn’t stop Israel from committing a genocide so not sure what Starmer’s play is here. Ideally, Palestine should be recognized eventually as that’s a requirement of the two state solution but “hey we won’t do it now as long as you kill less children”
Is anyone really surprised that Starmer is begging Israel to invent new methods of hiding the genocide in Gaza? As a major funder and supplier of the genocidal forces, Starmer could potentially face war crimes charges in the future, and as such his major concern lies with protecting himself. He desperately wants Israel to modify its genocide in ways that make it less visible to the outside world. It isn’t enough that the IDF tracks and executes Palestinian journalists as a matter of policy, they need to protect their foreign enablers from political and legal consequences.
Israel could build gas chambers to exterminate Palestinians and the UK would still simp for Israel and refuse to recognize Palestine.
They are sending weapons to Israel every day, UK isn’t opposed to the famine in Gaza they are largely responsible for facilitating it.
On the face of it, this seems good as done. I can’t imagine Israel agreeing to all these conditions. Netanyahu’s whole political career has revolved around opposing a two-state. Meanwhile, it was only last week that the Knesset voted in favour of annexing the West Bank.
Most of the terms placed on Israel in theory makes sense except two.
For the first I don’t know what agreed to a ceasefire means given that Hamas also has to agree to a ceasefire. The statement makes no sense unless the UK declares what it believes are the ceasefire terms both parties should agree to. Is it just stop firing at each other? But he also demands that Hamas release hostages and if Israel isn’t firing at them what incentive do they have?
It’s also not clear what commits to a long-term peace process even means. Endless negotiations for the next decades?
Why does recognition of the stare of Palestine depend on the actions of a terrorist state? This is like saying recognition of the new Syrian government is dependent on if ISIS behaves or not.
Starmer is basically admitting to being on Israels leash by saying they, as a foreign nation, get to dictate his actions and decisions.
“We promise to not let them have sovereignty and freedom if you ease off on the genocide. They’re all pointing their fingers at us, and now it’s getting a bit too much.” Fucking colonizers. Fuck them.
Kid Starver here has inadvertently placed a hard time limit on Israeli plans. Essentially he is telling Israel to solidify it’s gains in the WB and Gaza over the next 2 months and have a token recognition of a “state” or end their ethnic cleansing, genocide, and annexation moves imminently to avoid said token recognition of a state. How is this an incentive to become less aggressive towards Palestinians?
I don’t see this as some sort of existential threat to Israeli interests, rather it is an empty gesture that he is too cowardly to do immediately. If any of these leaders actually cared, they would sign on the Hague declaration and embargo Israel immediately. This “announcement” is useless. May all of our current rulers burn in the same fire together and may our righteous anger destroy them all. At the polls.
In 1993, the Oslo Accords, signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel, did imply mutual recognition but Palestinian leaders have consistently resisted recognizing Israel as a “Jewish state”.
In October 2010, Prime Minister Netanyahu suggested recognition of Israel as a Jewish state in return for settlement freezes. The Palestinian Authority rejected this explicitly: President Abbas said, *“We will never sign an agreement recognizing a Jewish state”*, and spokesperson Saeb Erekat echoed this refusal.
It is not Israel that’s preventing statehood. Its the from the river to the sea crowd that want all Jews eliminated and can not compromise.
Why on earth would recognition of a state be used as a punishment? Either Palestine has sovereignty or they don’t, this exposes Starmer as completely lacking in actual values.
What I can’t reconcile with, is the fact that Hamas has made clear it intends to continue governing Gaza until any transition agreement with the Palestinian Authority is reached. What will this transition look like? Will Hamas submit to actually giving up political control over the strip?
It’s all well and good that the UK and France just want the PA to take over everything, but anyone not expecting messy infighting in Palestine after the war is sorely mistaken.
this is stamer being dragged kicking and screaming by his ministers. god what a disgrace of a leader labor has. sadly only rivaled by the disgrace that is the leadership of my own party here in good ol’ USA
its a postive step but sadly will mean nohing to those currently undergoing suffering. for somethingl ike much more broad immieade action would be needed, and without the us or germany on board for anything remotely sufficent, many tens to hundreds of of thousands more will die before this over.
what an utter betrayal of every single value that was supposed to make the west the west. ethnonationalism is a fuck cancer.
> unless Israel meets certain conditions
so this is the part that Macron didn’t dare to say out loud
this feels like another political show to calm the angry mass because they know something is going to happen before September, i feel like either a ceasefire or a complete annexation in going to happen …
Sounds like a very nice incentive for Hamas to make even stronger demands in the negotiations.
Anyway, a bit weak to let whether such completely symbolic policy happens depend on the actions of a foreign government. Like either do it or don’t dangle it in front of people based on what a different government does.
Might as well get on with it and then also face the reality that recognition of Palestine as a state won’t make any difference on the ground. The UK and France just are not remotely influential countries to change that and haven’t been since their leaders were even born
People here say that Starmer is still refusing to commit to anything but recognition is all but assured. Israel will never ever meet Starmer’s conditions (accept a palestinian state). The french succeeded in putting pressure on the UK. Indeed, Starmer is still a coward but this is decisive folks.
>and that the UK’s demands on Hamas remain
Yeah keep pushing those demands out ad infinitum that’s sure to motivate them
Where is the international pressure being applied to Hamas? plenty of threats that would hit them where it hurts
* we will open our doors to refugees
* we will commission christian missionary work in gaza
* Any future palestinian state must be conditional on LGBTQ rights
All these demands seem more or less reasonable, though I wonder how the ceasefire demand is going to work out when it’s been Hamas that’s been the main obstacle in achieving a ceasefire at least recently. Does he expect Israel to just unilaterally declare a ceasefire without concessions or buy in from Hamas if an agreement can’t be reached with them?
How to do nothing while making it look like you’re doing something.
Someone needs to dig into what has suddenly changed as far as the UK Government though, it happened last week when there was a sudden and immediate shift in position that has also been reflected in the state media.
Israel will of course just ignore this since there’s no reason to do anything else. Nobody recognising Palestine as a state will step in to protect it as a state, after all.
Why are people still acting like the hostages are still alive.
For one, if they did survive the blind bombings, they would have to worry about infections and diseases. Secondly, if they somehow made it past that the hostages would have to survive a stage 5 famine.
The odds that even 1 hostage is still alive is near 0 in my book.
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