PM says Israel must take major steps in coming weeks or the UK will make its move ahead of UN General Assembly in September.<\/p>\n
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has told his cabinet that the United Kingdom will recognise the state of Palestine by September unless Israel takes \u201csubstantive steps\u201d to end its war on Gaza and commits to a lasting peace process.<\/p>\n
According to a government statement issued after an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Starmer said the move could come before the United Nations General Assembly in New York unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire, halts plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, and supports a political path towards a two-state solution.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Starmer] reiterated that there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas and that our 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,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n
Starmer interrupted ministers\u2019 summer holidays to discuss a draft European-led peace initiative and plans to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza, where the UN has warned of looming famine<\/a>.<\/p>\n While past UK governments have supported Palestinian statehood \u201cwhen the time is right\u201d, none has publicly tied it to a specific deadline or laid out preconditions so explicitly.<\/p>\n With pressure mounting from within Starmer\u2019s own party, his position appears to have shifted. More than half of Labour\u2019s backbench MPs have signed a letter urging the government to formally recognise a Palestinian state as leverage to push Israel towards peace.<\/p>\n Speaking to reporters, Starmer defended the timing and conditions of the announcement, saying the decision was driven by the \u201cintolerable situation\u201d in Gaza and a fear that the two-state solution was slipping out of reach.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is intended to further that cause,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s done now because I\u2019m particularly concerned that the idea of a two-state solution is reducing and feels further away today than it has for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that recognition of Palestine would be part of an eight-point peace plan the UK has been developing with European partners. Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said France would formally<\/a> recognise Palestine as a state, becoming the largest and most influential European nation to do so. European Union members Norway, Spain and the Republic of Ireland have previously said they recognise the State of Palestine.<\/a><\/p>\n Labour MP Sarah Champion, who organised the letter to Starmer, said there will never be a perfect moment to recognise Palestinian statehood, but warned this might be the last chance.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we do have, however, is the perfect storm to prevent a two-state solution ever happening,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is now or never if we believe in Palestinians\u2019 right to recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PM says Israel must take major steps in coming weeks or the UK will make its move ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,393,299,2194,4884,13642,837,7424,839,12,1144,1814,40890,285,712,16,15,49,286,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-301774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-gaza","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-humanitarian-crises","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-israel-palestine-conflict","17":"tag-middle-east","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-northern-ireland","20":"tag-palestine","21":"tag-palestinian-authority","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-scotland","24":"tag-uk","25":"tag-united-kingdom","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-us-canada","28":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114937756826541426","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}