Harry Farleypolitical correspondent, and
Jessica Rawnsley
Sir Keir Starmer has announced the UK’s recognition of a Palestinian state, in what represents a significant change in government policy.
In a video statement on X, the prime minister said: “In the face of the growing horror in the Middle East we are acting to keep alive the possibility of peace and a two-state solution.”
Australia and Canada also announced formal recognition of the state of Palestine, with Portugal and France expected to follow.
The decision has drawn fierce criticism from the Israeli government, families of hostages held in Gaza and some Conservatives. Responding on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a Palestinian state “will not happen”.
Saying he had “a clear message” to the leaders who had declared recognition, he added: “You are giving a huge reward to terrorism”.
Both the Israeli and US governments say recognition is a diplomatic gift for Hamas following its attack in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
Sir Keir insisted the decision “is not a reward for Hamas” because it means Hamas can have “no future, no role in government, no role in security”.
“Our call for a genuine two-state solution is the exact opposite of [Hamas’s] hateful vision,” he said.
The move is a “pledge to the Palestinian and Israeli people that there can be a better future”, he continued, adding the “starvation and devastation [in Gaza] are utterly intolerable” and the “death and destruction horrifies all of us”.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the decision, which Sir Keir had confirmed in a letter to the leader, saying it would help pave the way for the “state of Palestine to live side by side with the state of Israel in security, peace and good neighbourliness”.
The Foreign Office said it means the UK “recognises Palestinian statehood over provisional borders, based on 1967 lines with equal land swaps, to be finalised as part of future negotiations”.
The two-state solution refers to the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, broadly along the lines that existed prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
A state of Palestine is currently recognised by around 75% of the UN’s 193 member states, but has no internationally agreed boundaries, capital or army – making recognition largely symbolic.
Due to Israel’s military occupation in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority, set up in the wake of peace agreements in the 1990s, is not in full control of its land or people. In Gaza, where Israel is also the occupying power, Hamas has been the sole ruler since 2007.
Announcing Canada’s recognition on Sunday, Prime Minister Mark Carney offered “partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future” for both Palestine and Israel, while Australia’s Anthony Albanese said it was “part of a co-ordinated effort to build new momentum for a two-state solution”.
In July, Sir Keir set a deadline of the UN General Assembly meeting, which takes place next week, for the UK to announce recognition unless Israel took “substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long-term, sustainable peace, reviving the prospect of a two-state solution”.
Efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza – let alone a long-term solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict – have faltered. Israel sparked international outrage when it recently carried out an air strike on a Hamas negotiating team in Qatar.
Government sources said the situation on the ground had worsened significantly in the last few weeks, citing images showing starvation and violence in Gaza that Sir Keir previously described as “intolerable”.
On Sunday, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said 71 people were killed and 304 injured in Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours.
Israel’s latest ground operation in Gaza City, described by a UN official as “cataclysmic”, has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee.
It is the latest Israeli offensive in the nearly two-year war which has seen much of the Palestinian territory’s population displaced, its infrastructure destroyed, and at least 65,208 people killed, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Earlier this week, a UN commission of inquiry concluded Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, which Israel denounced as “distorted and false”.
UK ministers have also highlighted the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law, as a key factor in the decision to recognise Palestinian statehood.
Mohammed Jarrar, mayor of the West Bank city of Jenin, told the BBC that “this Israeli government wants to annex the West Bank” – but stressed that recognition was important as “it confirms the fact that the Palestinian people possess a state, even if it is under occupation”.
Netanyahu repeated his intentions on Sunday, saying “we doubled Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] and we will continue on this path”.
Far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir responded to the news by calling for Israel to annex the West Bank and dismantle the Palestinian Authority.
UK Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy acknowledged recognition would not necessarily change reality on the ground, but said “now is the time to stand up for a two-state solution”.
He told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: “Will this feed children? No, it won’t. That’s down to humanitarian aid. Will it free hostages? That must be down to a ceasefire.”
EPAHusam Zomlot, the Palestinian Authority’s UK representative, told the BBC that recognition was an “inalienable right” that would mean “ending the denial of our existence” and that “the British people should celebrate today, when history is being corrected”.
“The question is never why should the UK recognise the state of Palestine,” he said, “the question is why didn’t the UK recognise the state of Palestine all along?”
Reacting to UK recognition, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called the move “absolutely disastrous”, adding: “Rewarding terrorism with no conditions whatsoever put in place for Hamas.”
Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel accused the prime minister of “capitulating to the hard-left factions of his party”.
But Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey welcomed the decision, which he said was “long overdue”.
Recognition has long been a cause championed by many within Labour. The PM has been under mounting pressure to take a tougher stance on Israel, particularly from MPs on the left of his party.
Mandy Damari, mother of former UK-Israeli hostage Emily Damari, said Sir Keir was “under a two-state delusion”. Recognition rewarded Hamas while hostages were still in Gaza and the group still in power, she said.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum UK, which represents relatives of captives with British ties, condemned the decision, calling it a “betrayal of humanity and a move that rewards Hamas while 48 hostages remain in captivity”. Of the hostages still being held, around 20 are still thought to be alive.
“Instead of confronting Hamas, Britain has emboldened it,” the group said in a statement.
Asked about these concerns, Lammy said he had been discussing the issue with relatives, adding: “I think it’s also right to say that there are many hostage families who are shocked and appalled that the prospects of a ceasefire have been set back just in the recent days.”
He added it was important to recognise that “Hamas is not the Palestinian people”.
Hamas on Sunday welcomed the recognition as an “important step in affirming the right of our Palestinian people to their land and holy sites” but said it must be accompanied by “practical measures” that would lead to an “immediate end” to the war.
Sir Keir, who has repeatedly said Hamas can have no role in the future governance of a Palestinian state, said during his announcement that the UK had already proscribed and sanctioned Hamas and that he had directed work to sanction further Hamas figures in the coming weeks.
