Pickthall House welcomes the British government’s decision to recognise an independent Palestinian state, for which Pickthall House has consistently advocated, fulfilling the ultimatum given by the British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, to Israel on 29 July. This week’s recognition demonstrates that, especially given the ever worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and increasing Israeli aggression abroad (most recently in Doha a fortnight ago), any argument for delaying recognition until conditions improve or negotiations advance has been rendered null and void. Moreover, the suggestion by some political figures, that recognition is in any way a reward for Hamas’ actions in October 2023, and that Palestinians should demonstrate the legitimacy of their state before any posited recognition, is both misleading and circular, especially when the conditions for a viable and freely recognised Palestinian state have historically been repeatedly and actively denied.
Recognition of Palestinian independence has long been and remains a moral and legal imperative, and Pickthall House is heartened to see other Western governments, including France, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Belgium, Andorra, Luxembourg, Malta and San Marino, adopt this course of action. Recognition of both Israel and Palestine opens the door to parity in negotiations, rather than allowing Israel and US vetoes at the UN to dictate the terms of Palestinian national legitimacy.
While Pickthall House welcomes this step by Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, and the new British Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, it is critical of statements by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, that an independent Palestinian state should be entirely disarmed. This comes while Israel remains one of the most well-armed states in the region, with a military budget surpassing $46 billion last year with direct UK and US defence support. To suggest that a nascent Palestinian state, emerging from two years of continuous bombardment, and encroachment in both Gaza and the West Bank, should be expected to surrender any capacity for future self-defence is entirely unreasonable.
Furthermore, Pickthall House hopes that this formal recognition, over a century since the Balfour Declaration first gave British sanction to a Jewish state in historic Palestine, is accompanied by sincere and material efforts by Britain to end the ongoing war in Gaza, declared last week to be a genocide by the UN’s Independent International Commision of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Now that the ongoing crisis can be openly acknowledged as an international conflict, rather than merely an Israeli domestic issue, appropriate British action would include and is not limited to immediate sanctions on Israeli trade, arms and settlers in the West Bank, cessation of all British military and intelligence support to Israel that may be aiding its operations in Gaza, and a coordinated effort to bring both Israeli and Hamas officials to the negotiating tables to guarantee a lasting and constructive peace agreement.
